Garden IV : First Fruits

After the devestation of the flood, I wasn't sure if I was ever going to receive vegetables from my community garden plot. Then it happened, on a beautiful day sometime in June, I was given the gift of my first vegetables. At this point I wish I wasn't writing this down, but actually sitting with whoever decides to read this. I wish we were sitting in my living room and you could see the twinkle in my eye, and the excitement that seeps through my pores when I talk about the day of first fruits! It was glorious.

Everyone in the garden loved it when they got their first vegetables because it meant that they did something right. That all the hauling of water, churning of dirt, planting seeds, and picking weeds had paid off. This was a time of celebration. Leigh, Howard, and Dave all called me over to their gardens and showed me the first vegetables coming in. I remember Dave pulled me aside and like a proud parent showed me his eggplant. You see, this was the first summer he attempted eggplant and it was paying off! Leigh showed me all of her green beans, and broccoli. Howard showed me this crazy hybrid tomato that he claimed he had created. He said, and I quote, "Dave all I did was set the two plants next to each other, gave them a beer, and turned out the lights. The next morning I had 'Star Kiss' ". He deemed the tomato "star kiss" because supposedly each tomato had a star at the bottom of it. Howard was the romantic. My first vegetables were one green pepper (which by the way I only got one green pepper out of the summer, but it was tasty.), and a couple of onions. Great, Great, Great!! ( this is me trying to show the excitement)

It was really nice to see everyone's starting vegetables and seeing the proud "parents", but I haven't told you the best part about the first fruits. It was the sharing!!! Everyone wanted everyone else to try their vegetables. One afternoon Dave came over to my garden, shirtless as usually, and he had in his hand a freshly picked jalapeno, and a huge cherry tomato. He had me eat the cherry tomato right there in front of him, so I could say how good it was. Let me tell you it was good. (Blair, if you are reading this I think you were there for this one, and I'm pretty sure you had a bite of that tasty cherry tomato). That was one of my favorite memories, beause it made me realize the gifts that God has given us, and how we can take delight in the sharing of them. I also took the jalapeno home, and it immediately went into some chip dip that my other roommate Kyle was making. (more sharing!) As you can see in the picture above, those three vegetables were my first prize. That green pepper lasted all of 5 minutes after coming home. Blair quick snapped a couple of photos, and then he and I split it. Crisp and Delicious.

Those couple of days I learned what it meant to share within a community. Honestly this summer in the garden was really about the people in the garden teaching me what community was like. I was to learn many more lessons about community and life in the garden. After all, these were just the first fruits....