(HOST) Lately, commentator Charlie Nardozzi has been thinking about self-sufficiency, and a time when "putting food by" was a common practice.
(NARDOZZI) It’s easy to think about fresh vegetables and fruits this time of year. Gardens are literally overflowing with ripe tomatoes, peppers and squashes. It can even make a gardener dream of the holy grail of vegetable gardening: becoming self-sufficient. Most serious veggie gardeners have at least once entertained the notion of preserving a majority of this bounty. Think of the satisfaction of being able to snub your nose at the grocery store vegetable and fruit shelves in January! Yes, it takes time and effort, but there is something appealing about growing and preserving your own produce.
I’ve been thinking about self-sufficient gardening recently because I’ve had such a plentiful harvest this year. Also, I recently returned from a pilgrimage to the former home of the self-sufficiency icons, Helen and Scott Nearing. For those younger than me, the Nearings were the idols of the back-to-the-land movement in the 1970’s. In college I dreamed of going to their homestead in coastal Maine to visit, but never got there. It was only when I started dating Helen’s great niece in the last few years that the idea was rekindled.
Both Helen and Scott have long since passed from this Earth, but their Maine farm continues as an educational non-profit. There are stewards living on the land continuing the "good life," as the Nearings called it, living as simply as possible, with a few modern additions, such as solar panels on the house. It was inspirational being there, hearing the stories from Wendy about her great aunt and seeing for myself the intricacies of their lifestyle. In fact, the Nearings never lived totally self-sufficiently, but they did live with intention and principle. They lived simply. They broke the day into 4-hour blocks: one for doing manual work around the homestead, one for quiet contemplative time, and one for social and community time. In an age where complexity is worshipped, simple living seems to have been forgotten – or has it? One of the stewards living at the Forest Farm is Joel, who is only 25 years old. He wasn’t even born when the Nearings’ popularity was at its zenith; yet he still craves a simpler life for himself. He’s spending a year or two at the Forest Farm to learn as much as he can about this lifestyle.
It made me think about living more self-sufficiently and why I still preserve even a small amount of my harvest. I probably will never be as self-sufficient as the Nearings, but there still is something very satisfying about taking an evening to can tomatoes, a Saturday morning to freeze blueberries, or an afternoon to make pesto. In this age of immediate gratification and worship of machines and technology, I still think the Nearings’ message is relevant. Live simply, with intention and with meaning about what really matters to you. It’s a warm thought, on a warm evening while canning tomatoes in September.
Charlie Nardozzi is an all-around gardening expert with a special fondness for tomatoes and roses.