How I Became a Gardener

The rolling hills of NE Missouri look a lot like Wisconsin in this photo.

I was raised a city girl. My family, and everyone else we knew, lived in a row home in an urban area of Philadelphia. My life was similar to many city kids—I walked to school through 12^th grade, played kick the can in the driveway, and hung around outside the local candy store.

And although I haven’t lived in a big city in over 20 years, I can still stand on a corner in Chicago or San Francisco or Mexico City and close my eyes and tap into that familiar rhythm and energy which seems to run through my veins.

I am giddy when crossing an intersection in the middle of a herd of people, I love navigating the tunnels and mazes of the subway, and I can slip back into my frenetic city walking pace on a moment’s notice.

I had lived the big city life growing up and thought I always would…until the spring I turned 26.

Me, 15 years later, in my current front yard vegetable garden.

Up until that point, I had been living out my post-college years in one of the greatest cities in the world: San Francisco. I had expected to be riding the wave of mid-20s freedom, but instead I was struggling to find work, an apartment and friends.

For the first time ever, instead of being energized by city-living, I felt lost and lonely.

One thing after another kept falling through, doors upon doors where slammed in my face, and so much wasn’t working out it was almost comical. I slowly began to see my mid-adventures as a sign that life in San Francisco wasn’t meant for me.

So, I wearily turned my thoughts to other possibilities instead. In the quiet, reflective times I began to hear a whisper that was calling me toward something that seemed completely foreign to me. I was perplexed as I began to have visions of learning how to grow my own food.

I had no idea where this yearning was coming from, but I decided to follow it to rural Missouri where I signed on to become an intern on an organic vegetable farm.

This farm in a town of 100 people in the middle-of-nowhere Missouri was my introduction to rural life, and gardening. I so wish I could travel back to that summer to be a cabbage moth fluttering around the brassicas, watching myself slowly turning from west coast hipster to down home gardener.

I remember lots of sore muscles, several weeks of nervousness and a few tears shed alone in my tent. That first summer was filled with strange and foreign tasks such as chopping firewood, learning to cook dinner for 40 people on a woodstove in an outdoor kitchen, building homes with clay and straw, and most importantly, being immersed in the wonder of growing food.

It was the first time I had ever spent my days in a garden working with plants, and my learning curve was steep. But, somehow, amidst the seven-foot-tall weeds, incredibly tired muscles, hordes of mosquitoes and dripping hot, humid days, I fell in love with gardening and set myself on a radically different path than the one I was on before I arrived in that farm field.

You can learn more about this journey in my 10 minute TED-like talk here. (It’s quick and funny!)