My Roots

I was an only child growing up on a dairy farm. My parents knew when I didn’t do my chores, as I didn’t have any siblings to pawn them off on. It was a lot of daily hard work with no time off for holidays or bad weather.

When I was a senior in high school, my father grew afraid of the ever increasing environmental pressers, and, in what I call his mid life crisis, sold all the cattle and went back to school. He is now a network troubleshooter for a large telecommunications company. I also went to school in the big city, and have since then been a government worker living in the city.

Thing is, I know how to do things like canning, sewing, gardening, etc. I don’t always do them, but I know how. So when the recession hit, I had managed to find myself a little duplex to rent that had enough dirt in the patio area to plant just a few herbs and tomato plants. When I moved in with my boyfriend now husband, we moved into a little ranch style house, and I started planting berries, peas, more herbs and tomatoes, blueberries, and even tried growing our own flowers for our wedding. My father and my husband made me a composter.

I try to be green when it is useful to me or saves me money. Composting gives me good rich soils without filling up our trash can, which I have to pay to have hauled away. I actually canned for the first time in years a few weeks ago. My parents bought down some apples that had been in storage a little too long, so I made them into apple sauce and then canned them because I couldn’t bear to waste something in which I could make useful while saving money from not having to go buy it.

I sort of have a “can do” attitude, and I think that is why I have taken to making cider and wines so much, and it all started by living on a dairy farm.