YOU MAY NOT THINK OF GARDENING AS A VACATION PASSTIME, BUT…

Living in the beautiful state of Vermont provides most of its citizens with an opportunity to grow their own food in their own garden. Gardening is a rewarding pastime and fits well with the Yankee tradition of independence.  For these reasons, I am somewhat ashamed to admit that despite being a Vermonter, I really don’t enjoy gardening. Oh I raise a few tomato plants, some herbs, some strawberries—a few essentials—but I don’t grow a lot of my own food.

 I could say that my general aversion to gardening results because my job keeps me busiest during the summer months, and I just don’t have time to garden. But that would only be an excuse.  We always find time to do the things we enjoy. Or I could say that I planted, weeded and picked so much through my youth that I can’t bear to snap another bean. But that’s not really so either. All the work is quickly rewarded with the marvelous taste of produce fresh from your own garden, as opposed to the virtually tasteless produce purchased at the grocery store. (However I should point out that many Vermont stores carry local, farm-fresh produce in the summer.) No the real reason is that I get a little knot in my stomach every time I approach a garden.

 When I was a boy, my parents kept a reasonably large garden, growing Swiss chard, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, radishes, corn, pumpkins and the like. Now our garden was always planted on a high, flat piece of my family’s property that got good sun exposure. Now our garden just happened to be situated near the strawberry patch of one of our neighbors. Mrs. Smith (not her real name) was a nice older woman, but she guarded her strawberry crop from purloining neighboring teens by filling a shot gun with rock salt and firing over the heads of would-be raiders.

 Sadly, after Mr. Smith died, she was, to employ a polite expression of the day, tiddley more often than not. Well, in that delicate condition, she was as apt to fire at you as over your head and she lost her powers of discernment to distinguish a young fellow weeding his parents’ garden from a teen about to raid her berry patch. So I had to keep one eye on the weeds and one eye toward her house in order to avoid being shot with rock salt, which really stings, by the way. So I lost any love for gardening that I might once have had and grow very little to this day.

 But on the bright side, I live in Vermont where almost every village and town has a weekly farmers’ market. So I can still enjoy the wonderful taste of fresh, local produce and avoid the grocery store tomatoes that taste like straw and berries that are picked before they are ripe. And this same wonderful experience can be yours the next time you visit Vermont.  If you live in an area where you cannot grow your own garden and where farmers’ markets are not as convenient to you, please do visit a farmer’s market while on vacation in Vermont. Just ask in any community you are visiting for information about the time of the local market. Then take the family on a picnic and enjoy those fresh fruits and vegetables. We’ve got many great places to picnic in Vermont. Might I suggest visiting one of our state parks or hiking to a waterfall, such as Moss Glen Falls?

Wherever you decide to eat that picnic lunch, you’ll have a grand time in Vermont.

Use the link below to find a Vermont state park while in Vermont:

http://www.vtstateparks.com/

When visiting Central Vermont, do yourself a favor and visit Moss Glen Falls:

http://www.northeastwaterfalls.com/waterfall.php?num=253&p=0

Take time to be thankful and enjoy life’s journey.