Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Why I grow lettuce (sometimes)
I hate gardening. I pretty much hate any kind of hard physical work.
I do like pretty flower beds. So some effort is necessary on that front, although admittedly my husband does 99% of landscape maintenance because he does not hate gardening and actually seems to enjoy it.
Flower beds and lawns are much more expensive than the dirt or gravel yards that my grandparents had up until the 1950s, but there are circumstances that make landscaping worth having for most of us. So clearly cost is not the only consideration when it comes to landscaping.
Sometimes I take one of my flower beds or a container (less weeds) and plant tomatoes during the summer and lettuce and other assorted greens during the fall. I live in the south, so I have a long growing season. This year I will be too busy working three jobs to plant lettuce, but I am sad about it.
Why am I sad? Certainly with three jobs I can buy some lettuce. I could have bought tomatoes all summer too. But my tomatoes and lettuce taste better. They taste better because I pick them right before I eat them. Because they taste better, I eat them faster. Because I eat them faster, I rarely end up throwing out tomatoes or lettuce.
As someone who has fought a battle with lettuce for my entire adult life to find some supermarket lettuce that is not already half spoiled and then to take it home only to have it spoil after only one salad and have to throw it out, ~that~ is why I grow lettuce. As someone who has eaten one too many terrible no-taste watery factory farmed tomatoes, even during summer, ~that~ is why I grow tomatoes.
By growing lettuce, clipping it off the plant and washing it right before making salad, I have ended my battle with half-bad lettuce. And by growing tomatoes, I am able to almost forget that terrible nothing taste of grocery store tomatoes. It may seem stupid, but after at least 10 battles with produce managers over the years due to finding only pitiful produce on the shelves of my local store, the peace of mind that I get from my agricultural efforts is absolutely priceless.
A different kind of economic calculation, maybe, but it works for me.
I do like pretty flower beds. So some effort is necessary on that front, although admittedly my husband does 99% of landscape maintenance because he does not hate gardening and actually seems to enjoy it.
Flower beds and lawns are much more expensive than the dirt or gravel yards that my grandparents had up until the 1950s, but there are circumstances that make landscaping worth having for most of us. So clearly cost is not the only consideration when it comes to landscaping.
Sometimes I take one of my flower beds or a container (less weeds) and plant tomatoes during the summer and lettuce and other assorted greens during the fall. I live in the south, so I have a long growing season. This year I will be too busy working three jobs to plant lettuce, but I am sad about it.
Why am I sad? Certainly with three jobs I can buy some lettuce. I could have bought tomatoes all summer too. But my tomatoes and lettuce taste better. They taste better because I pick them right before I eat them. Because they taste better, I eat them faster. Because I eat them faster, I rarely end up throwing out tomatoes or lettuce.
As someone who has fought a battle with lettuce for my entire adult life to find some supermarket lettuce that is not already half spoiled and then to take it home only to have it spoil after only one salad and have to throw it out, ~that~ is why I grow lettuce. As someone who has eaten one too many terrible no-taste watery factory farmed tomatoes, even during summer, ~that~ is why I grow tomatoes.
By growing lettuce, clipping it off the plant and washing it right before making salad, I have ended my battle with half-bad lettuce. And by growing tomatoes, I am able to almost forget that terrible nothing taste of grocery store tomatoes. It may seem stupid, but after at least 10 battles with produce managers over the years due to finding only pitiful produce on the shelves of my local store, the peace of mind that I get from my agricultural efforts is absolutely priceless.
A different kind of economic calculation, maybe, but it works for me.
