Reflection

"The experience of the sublime is all about nature having her way with us, about the sensation of awe before her power--about feeling small" (Pollan, 2001).

My parents have led my food journey since I was small, little seedling--starting each week with a journey to the farm Co-Op we are a part of to pick up our produce for the week. Here, people gathered and swapped produce. During pick up, members of the farm set up tables with value added products (canned veggies, jams, salsas..etc.) that originated at the farm. Every Sunday, I would leave the farm feeling inspired, hungry, and small.

Fast Forward two years later to the summer between my sophomore and junior year at Florida State University. I had just returned from cooking at the annual Pesto Festo held at the farm where I grew up. I missed the community, the veggies, and feeling small. It was around this time that I heard about iGrow Community Garden, a youth empowerment program that was designed to 1. Grow fresh and affordable food for the community 2. Create meaningful employment (both volunteer and paid) for youth, and 3. To teach young people to teach other people how to grow his or her own food. This was a mission that I could stand behind, and learn a whole lot in the process.

iGrow became my refuge amidst the concrete jungle that I spent so much of my time in. I began to grow my own food here, lessening my reliance on the grocery store to provide me with (depending on the season) collards, kale, and spinach that I eat virtually everyday. Every workday I find myself in bliss, standing among the free range chickens, their blue speckled eggs, and the rows and rows of veggies we grow. I think planting seeds that turn into something we consume, is probably the closest thing to magic we have.

Currently, I manage the Seminole Organic Garden on campus, a space dedicated to teaching students sustainable and organic growing practices. Every garden workday, I am floored by what the students bring to the table, and how quickly the good food movement is traveling. One 4x8 bed at a time we are taking back the industrialization of food and consuming food that has been sourced organically, locally, and ethically. AND--we save our seeds. It feels good to be small, to start my own food journey.