Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Abstract

Excerpt: "The dandelions awoke on a sunny day near the end of March, following on the heels of a month's worth of rain that fell in three days' time. Bright yellow flowers opened to the sun, welcoming bees and other insects looking for pollen and nectar, and welcoming a giant forager eager for blossoms to make dandelion wine. "Pick me!" they seemed to say. So I did, knowing more would come. Aware of my fellow harvesters, I waited to pick a blossom until a hardworking bee took off for another blossom or for home, hind legs heavily laden with yellow pollen.

Kim and Sarah came to pick up our surplus strawberry plants, a nice by-product of pruning baby strawberry plants, which multiply like rabbits. They were the last of the community supported agriculture (CSA) members, friends, and family who came to pick up plants to start or embellish their own strawberry patches. While Kim was there, I committed to her that I would take the step (sigh) to welcome my new neighbors before starting to brew any dandelion nectar. Committing gave me a deadline and a witness. Elsewise, I knew that I might never make it up to my neighbor's front door, in spite of my best intentions. (Do you find it odd, dear reader, that it is so much easier for me to write a book for an unknown audience than to go meet a neighbor I might have to look in the eye?)"

Comments

Originally published as chapter four in Lisa McMinn's, To the Table: A Spirituality of Food, Farming, and Community, Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2015. Used by permission.

http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/to-the-table/354161

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