Harvesting and Gardening

While my family always seemed to have different plans and things they had going on in their lives, two things were certain to remain the same-we hunted and we had a garden. For my family, hunting and gardening were not only a means of eating fresh and quality food, but also a means of survival. My parents always made sure that we had enough to eat. And that meant, taking the legal amount of game each season and having our own vegetable garden.

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My dad was a hard working man. He worked hard at work and at home. He was a hearty man. He liked to fish, hunt, and eat. My mom was a homemaker and raised us kids. She loved to cook. Having a garden provided her with a means to prepare fresh and healthy meals.

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As a kid I remember having to pull weeds in the garden. That was the WORST chore ever. It felt like it took days to get them all pulled. We also struggled with the bugs and droughts that seemed to plague our garden. Back then, I never understood the value of gardening. Why didn’t we just go to the grocery store and buy our food?

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As an adult, I have had that question answered for me. Despite all of the time and labor I have poured into my garden, it has been well worth having. When you grow up eating fresh grown veggies, buying from a store just taste different. Homegrown food has a taste all its own and is much healthier. A recent trip to Wal-Mart to get some tomatoes for an upcoming family dinner, led to much disappointment. Every single tomato in Wal-Mart was labeled “Mexico” on it. I was very sad to see that we were importing our veggies. We as Americans are more than capable of providing for ourselves and our families. Not to mention, the imported produced has been tarnished with chemicals and have picked for several days or weeks before it hits the shelf. It’s lost most of its nutritional value at that point.

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When you put in all that hard work and then see the delicious outcome, it is a wonderful feeling. Having an abundant, plentiful crop growing in my garden and a freezer full of meat, is a blessing I attribute to my parents.

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I take great pride in my garden and in hunting. I believe when I do both of these I am providing for my family in the most economical and healthy way possible. It’s certainly not easy, but it is most definitely rewarding!

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I’ll always be rooted and homegrown. Hunting and gardening will always be a way of life for me.