Uprooted
We rented, but we cared.
It seems against our nature not to care. Caring for ones shelter is surely innate. But it wasn’t ours, and this became more and more obvious as the years passed.
We planted a peach tree the first year on Second Street. The next spring we raised chicks to chickens and turned our lawn into food.
“You need to cut down that tree when you leave,” my landlord said as I was moving out. “I don’t want to have to take care of it, and it’s too hard to mow around.”
Today I bought someone else’s eggs for $3.50 and ate a peach from the freezer.
shit 🙁 i was there when the tree was planted 🙁
September 26th, 2010 at 3:31 amLau,
September 26th, 2010 at 7:40 amYou helped me plant it. Jim Harris down the street is the guy in the photograph. We dug up the tree and transplanted it at his house. All the leaves fell off, but we think it may make it. I wish you could have tasted the peaches from that tree. They were some of the best I’ve had.
Sadly,
Jim
So sad Jim. How tragic in so many ways. I love the irony you capture using pictures. By the way, I’ve been begging Toby to let us get chickens. There is a little farm up the road we go to, which I love. She lets the girls chase the chickens around and feed them oatmeal. She charges 2.50/dozen. I feel so good about myself when I buy those eggs. She also takes such good care of them and they have tons of space to roam and eat. Think about how much we would miss out on, not just good eggs, if we kept buying them at Price Chopper. Now I know my neighbor better and the girls and I get to have so much fun together in a beautiful setting. You were choosing so much more than just good food. Tragedy!
September 26th, 2010 at 10:50 amBekah,
September 26th, 2010 at 11:38 amYou’ve touched on one of modern living’s ironies. We move into “communities” only to become less of a community. By growing a garden and having chickens I got to know all the neighbors around me and even neighbors down the road. When I would go away for a week my neighbors would watch the cats, the chickens and even tend to the garden. If they went away I would of course do the same for them. We’ve formed relationships. I still watch my neighbor’s dogs when they go away, and I’m no longer their neighbor.
Growing food is not just about saving dollars and knowing where it comes from, it’s also about beginning a new communion with yourself, your planet and those who share it with you.
Thanks for your thoughtful words. As for Toby and the chickens, tell him to draw up a pros and cons list. You will surely have chickens when you stop and think about the advantages. Besides, he could build a beautiful coop.
Hopefully,
Jim
Lets not be to sad for the tree,It is a good time of year for the transplant and hopefully it will provide the new owner with more than ample fruit. Instead Let us be sad for the landlord and may he have, no fruit!
September 26th, 2010 at 9:32 pmThe funny thing about the landlord is that he would come over and take tomatoes from the garden and get peaches from the peach tree. He would always tell me how they were the best peaches he had ever tasted. This is most likely due to the fact that the peaches he’s tasted in the past were all picked when they weren’t ripe in California and then shipped thousands of miles to the WalMart in his neighborhood where he got an “Unbelievable Price.” Amazing how easily we’re won over with a price tag.
September 28th, 2010 at 9:01 amCuriously,
Jim
I am sad for the landlord, sad how he seems to see plants/nature as a source of production, like a factory, rather than something he is part of himself. To wish him no-fruit is a bit too much for me. I wish everybody the happiness of healthy food!
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:43 pm