Earth Day Appreciations

On this Earth Day, I’m reflecting on one of my earliest memories of visiting my grandparents in Long Island. My grandfather built his farm right in the middle of the suburbs of Hicksville. Rather than creating four small, separate plots of land for houses to bump up against each other, e followed his passion and built his dream farm. I don’t know much about his early years or why he had a passion for gardening. He passed away when I was young, and my only memory is of his warm smile and the twinkle in his eyes, which I believe had everything to do with dirty hands, honest work, and providing nutritious food for his five boys.

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Years later, when I was twelve, I visited my grandmother with my sister and harvested the blackberries in the August heat. Afterward, we made blackberry jam, stirring and sweating over the steaming pot. This idea that you could preserve the summer sun, and the sweetness of freshly picked blackberries in a simple mason jar to enjoy on a gloomy winter’s day, will stay with me forever.

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Today I make blackberry jam with my children in the summer and send it to my grandmother in Florida. She is 106 now, and there is so much joy in her voice when she receives our gift. She always says there’s nothing better than homemade jam, and I agree. I don’t believe there’s anything you can buy on a shelf or with the click of a finger that can bring you back to the soil and the simplicity of a summer harvest in the same way.

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I’m filled with the wisdom from both my grandparents reminding me to stay connected with the earth, and I’m so grateful that they have shown me the way.