JONTILLMAN.COM | part of the problem since 1976

It has been many years (since I was a child) since my family has had a garden, but this Spring (very soon now in South Carolina), my wife and I will be reviving the tradition and providing more of our own food by the product of our own hands. This has gotten me thinking of the subtly interrelated reasons why we undertake such projects; why we make these things deliberate parts of our lives.

First, and foremost, there is the aesthetic reasoning. As an accomplished cook (both commercial and social), I know what makes good produce, good meat, good spices, and in all cases it is the same things: care while growing, care while transporting and preparing, and absolutely no compromising when it comes to freshness. If I know the farmer who raised my beef, and visited the farm during the life of the cow, or if I shot the deer and tended to the butchering myself, I know what that meat is like - how it was raised, how it was slaughtered, how it was prepared, and where it came from. It just isn’t possible with grocery store fare to know what kind of food miles your dinner has travelled. Of course, the process of gardening, and cooking, and preserving food is enjoyable in its own right.

Secondly, these decisions have an economic component. It is simply just cheaper to do it yourself, assuming that you also see the aesthetic benefit in being involved in the process of your food. Where we live there simply are not any options for good tasting food stuffs that are not local (living rural has its advantages), so grocery stores are right out for us. It’s either farm stands run by local folk we know, or growing it ourself.

Lastly, there is a (not so) subtle socio-political motivation to these choices. Take, for instance, the coffee we drink. I buy Certified Organic, Fairly Traded green (unroasted) coffee from a guy who is absolutely passionate about coffee, and roast them myself, exactly to our tastes. By doing so, not only am I getting the best possible coffee for me in the world and doing so for far less than the cost of a pound of horrible store-brand beans, I am giving Starbucks, Gevalia, and all of the producers and importers of grocery store coffee a giant middle finger. I am refusing to participate in the “let’s exploit the third world since everything is cheap there” culture that brought you your over-roasted tasteless latte this morning. Now, starting our garden, we get to give the finger not just to the coffee aisle, but to the produce section too, and having worked on a commercial vegetable farm in Florida one year, I feel deep satisfaction in removing my money from their evil, evil hands.

So, nothing is ever simple, I guess. That is why it pays to sit down and think, really think, about your decisions. What started out as “Hey, let’s plant a garden, that would be neat!” evolved into a sound economic decision that is also an aesthetic, social and political statement.