For the Love of Radishes

If you met my dad and talked to him for any length of time, more likely than not he would tell you all about the time when I was two and I ate a whole row of radishes right out of our home garden. I spent the first five years of my life in "the country" and it was not uncommon in the summer for me to explore the wonders of our large yard while my parents worked nearby. I guess on this particular day they let me explore our vegetable garden, only to turn around and find my face soil-covered and a trail of discarded radish greens lining the long row where the radishes used to be planted.

The punchline of my dad's story involves the stinky diapers that they had to change for weeks... But, for me, that it not the end of the story. To this day, radishes remain my favorite vegetable to eat. Although they are not the most versatile vegetable in the garden and my adult stomach could certainly not handle eating a whole row of them, they still have a special place in my heart and on my plate.

You see, part of my love for the radish is its association to my childhood memories. I was able to experience from a young age the wonders of planting seeds, watching them grow and then eating fresh food right from the garden. Many of the kids growing up in urban environments, however, aren't allowed this same opportunity... they may never get to pull a juicy red radish from the soil, experience the joy of unearthing a circle of new red potatoes or see the surprise bouquet of flowers that appears when broccoli florets are not picked in time.

That is what the Schoolyard Gardens program is all about... Creating a space where children can explore the wonders of vegetable gardening, forming their own food-growing and eating memories. I believe that gardening is a process that has the potential to teach kids a whole new way to relate to the food that they eat.

And it is so important to introduce kids to gardening early while they are still forming their food preferences. Kids need to experience the fun of gardening before they are "too cool" to get dirty and they need to taste garden produce before they are so accustomed to candy and hot chips that anything fresh is "nasty."

So, I'm counting down the days until I can help little hands plant vegetable seeds in gardens at schools around the city... hoping that when the seeds sprout new memories will grow and a deeper relationship with food can be cultivated. How cool would it for a child to recognize a cucumber in the produce section of a grocery store and ask his parent to buy it because he remembers planting and watering a small white seed in his schoolyard garden that he got to watch grow into a vine with little yellow flowers that turned into cucumbers almost overnight... cucumbers that he got pick off the vine and eat... and actually liked.