The Strawberries Are the “Hook”

by Richard S. Kordesh

The needed rains arrived this week. Now the moisture in our beds rests deep enough to ensure that the seeds about to fall into them will enjoy the wet dirt they require. Into the ground this week will go the seeds of carrots, broccoli, radishes and beets. 

We’re making a bigger push with potatoes this season: Each black burlap sack last year yielded 12-18 tasty reds and whites. This year, we’re adding a couple of larger containers that will hopefully double our harvest. Late last November, I was amazed that I had already cooked the whole fall crop! My son lamented the end of those gloriously fresh spuds.

Not surprisingly, the strawberries have always been the favorite crop of children – our kids, neighbor kids, and those of house guests. The warm spring has encouraged much flowering and fruit formation. The strawberry bed that fronts our blue house has spread enthusiastically around hydrangeas and flowering bushes. 

The strawberries put on the show that hooks the kids into seeing the rest of the garden. A taste of sweet red fruits that he or she picked builds a child’s sense of the living place that brings forth not just strawberries, but tomatoes, cucumbers and spinach. This contact opens young minds through touch and smell to the world beneath the ground upon whose vitality the world above depends. This earthen space dwells so close, and yet without a garden it’s easily overlooked.

Let some strawberries put your kids in touch with the teeming, wriggling place beneath their feet.

Guest blogger Richard S. Kordesh is the author of Restoring Power to Parents and Places and has worked professionally in the community development field for 35 years.

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