|
Waiting for salsa: Gardening
teaches patience
By Ron
Wallace
September 16, 2008 | My wife and I decided we would
bottle some salsa this year. We have never done this
before and knew it would be difficult. In order to can
our own salsa we decided we would need to grow a garden.
My mother has a really good recipe for hot salsa that
we knew we could use but the first thing we needed to
do was make sure we planted the right types of plants
in the garden.
We had planted a garden a few years ago but I can't
remember it being successful. We made sure we planted
tomatoes and bell pepper plants in our garden so we
would have the main ingredients for the hot salsa recipe.
We also grew cilantro plants for one of the herbs, but
it didn't work out because it grew too early and there
wasn't enough of it. We'll just say the cilantro plant
was an early bloomer that won't be able to contribute
to our salsa.
As we started to get our garden ready it was a lot
tougher than I remember it being. I swear I'm a person
with a short term memory and for this reason I can't
recall the last garden being so hard to take care of.
When we started preparing our garden we didn't have
a tiller to clear out the weeds, so we had to do it
all with a hoe and a shovel. By the time we were done
both me and my wife's back were aching and we were covered
in sweat. We had cleared out two long rows and made
enough space to put in our plants. To clear these two
rows took a lot longer than I thought it would and after
we'd done it I had more gratitude for modern conveniences.
I know it would have saved us a lot of time if we only
would have had a tiller to do the dirty work for us.
When everything was finally planted I was excited
and thought we would be receiving our bountiful harvest
in no time. Little did I know that a garden takes time
to actually grow. We keep going back every week and
the results are disappointing. I keep on thinking, where
are the ripe tomatoes or bell peppers? We clear out
the weeds and take care of it but it's not producing
as quickly, or as much as I thought it would.
My wife tells me she can't recall seeing tomato plants
that big at her house in Preston, Idaho, when she was
growing up. When she tells me this I think in my head,
don't tell me about their size, I want to see some production
out of these plants. Considering we planted them in
May and it is now September, that is four months. I
guess I'm frustrated because I was expecting them to
grow faster and I have a lack of patience. All I have
gotten so far is a few blisters and an aching back.
I ask myself, "Why would you grow a garden? Why not
just buy the vegetables at a store?"
The good thing about this situation is things are
starting to change. We checked our garden 10 days ago,
and we actually had eight ripe tomatoes and four bell
peppers. If we are lucky we will have enough tomatoes
and bell peppers to can a small batch of hot salsa.
We just need tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, jalapenos
and cilantro. If we are close to the quantity that we
need this coming week we will buy the rest of the ingredients
at the store.
This is a really exciting experience for me. My wife
has canned things before but I never have. My mom always
was canning when I was a kid but I sat back and watched
while my other brothers and sisters participated. I
want to learn how to can and store things and this is
my first opportunity to do so. Plus, I'm learning how
to plant a garden. It takes effort: weeding, watering
and harvesting.
Next time I will remember that plants don't sprout
or produce instantaneously. Gardening and bottling salsa
takes patience, which is a virtue we can all learn.
NW
MS
|
