Issue 19.11
I look at early photographs of the St. George valley with a great deal of fondness. The Virgin River swelled within its banks and each home had a sizeable garden and orchard. I can imagine the early settlers paying their church tithes and offerings with a sack of grain or fattened pullets. Those days are behind us, now. The most irrigated crop in the United States, today, is lawn grass. The meals we eat travel an average of 1,500 miles from where they are grown to our dining tables. Our food begins its life in a financial institution as an operating loan, it then travels through a web of chemical fertilizer companies, government regulatory agencies, elaborate transportation networks, and is, finally, subject to the market realities of a global economy before it arrives in the cook pot. Should a concentrated growing region be subject to inclement weather, the price of the produce grown in that region could double instantly, as Florida tomatoes did in February. That is if the product is available at all.
But if I stop and look for a moment, I can see something different. I see a people who want to know where their food comes from. I see a people who want to be self-sufficient. I see people who want nutrient dense produce. I see people who want honest and wholesome food. I see people who look at the legacy of agrarian America, and they want their heritage back.
If done correctly, the produce grown right in our back yards is healthier, tastes better, is independent, and helps reduce long term food costs. Gardening heals wounded people, wounded cultures, and wounded geographies. Gardening is fulfilling. Gardening gives a person a quiet and easy confidence in a world that is anything but quiet and easy. And perhaps most importantly, gardening gives a person an excuse to wear ridiculous hats and create something beautiful. I invite you to take some time with me and together we can see how gardening can enrich our lives.
Kyle Wilson is a fourth generation agrarian, former member of the American Agricultural Economics Association, and proprietor of Eden Valley Gardening Co. Please call Kyle today to learn how you can have a garden at your home to give you the joy of fresh produce. Call (435) 668-5654 or kylew@infowest.com.