Adventures of a gardener...and an inspiring story...

Happy Thursday, everyone! Can I just start off by saying that I'm super excited to share today's post! The only thing about gardening that I think I may enjoy more than my own is to visit someone else's thriving garden.

In today's post, I'm sharing a fun trip that I made a couple of weekends ago to a local gardener who has been in the business for at least 60 years. I learned of her through a friend at work during a casual conversation about picking green beans... because, everyone has casual conversations about picking beans, right?!?! Anywho, she is located just outside of our local thoroughfare and, let me just say, the land is beautiful!

Her neck of the woods is wedged in between a protected land conservation and the Kansas River. Needless to say, there is an abundance of wildlife present in just about every direction. In fact, on my way to her garden, I saw a family of skunks. Although I have lived in Kansas for the majority of my life, I have never seen an entire family of skunks... In an odd way, it was sort of a cute sight.

Pulling up to the drive, I saw a myriad of garden paraphernalia, which much to my delight indicated that I was in the correct location. The landscape was rolling and rich in vegetation and in Kansas, this time of year, that is truly difficult to come by. As I entered the property, I was greeted by a lovely older woman dressed in garden attire sporting a garden hat and a four-wheeler. As she pointed to the location where I should park the prius, a thought entered my mind, "I hope this is me 40-50 years from now."

Let me start by saying that I am a big believer in first impressions, because in most cases, I can size someone up in the first 3 minutes of my conversation and I expect others to do the same with me. Call me unfair and judgmental, but I do know this about myself and I'm almost always right. So when I nearly tumbled over my two feet just getting out of the car, I was worried that she would ask me to turn around and leave because people who can't stand on their own two feet, shouldn't be allowed in gardens... Instead, to my humbled surprise, she greeted me casually and as I stuck out my hand to shake hers, she lovingly grasped my hand in both of hers and said, "let's head to the garden." So sweet :).

As we made our way to the garden, I was so wishing I had brought my DSLR to take a few pictures because I was speechless due to the beauty of my surroundings. Instead, I managed to take a few pictures with my iPhone, but let me just tell you... these pictures do not do the landscape any justice...

After a few more niceties, she directed me to the bean field and set me loose to picking my beans. There is something cathartic about being alone in a garden, in the country... the quiet... the stillness... nature...

After about ten minutes of picking, I decided took stock of my beans and my surroundings...

I wish this picture of the school bus was better, because I LOVE it! I love the vintage tone of it and hope that sometime, I can come back out and take better pictures of her farm, because it's just so beautiful and real.

In my short time of about an hour and a half, I managed to pick about six pounds of green beans, to which she added another four pounds that she picked for me. The charge was .75/lb. I gave her a ten dollar bill and told her if she would have me, I would love to come back. She loaded me up with a sack full of okra and told me to come back soon.

There is just something about that generation that leaves me feeling like people of today are just missing the point of life. We spend so much time connecting through social media and not enough time making real life connections with others and nature.

I loved the simple nature of her farmstead...the fact that she was born in the house shown below and that she had been working the land we were standing for decades. I loved the sincerity in her tone and I loved that she was so willing to welcome a complete stranger into her garden. Not sure I would be so open and willing to do that... Every once in a while, I see these glimpses of myself in others and this time, I saw a future picture of the life that I hope to lead... simple and honest...without all of the bells and whistles of meaningless "things" that we acquire and have little practical use for.

If you want to expand your horizons on the simple life... I would recommend this book...

I'm about half-way through it right now and I LOVE it! It's a true story about this writer who lived in New York and went to do a story on organic farming and fell in love with the farmer and completely changed her lifestyle into a more basic form. The book expands on the whole idea of Community Supported Agriculture where you basically remove the middle man (grocery store) and people have access to local and fresh food for their entire diet for an annual fee. I love this idea! I am so inspired by these stories.....

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