Items

• 
  2020-06

  Pandemic Gardening

  While there were a lot of terrible things that happened as a result of Covid-19, I feel that one positive was humanity's return to nature. With so many places closed down, people were forced to go outside and enjoy forests, beaches, yards, etc. I was one of these people, and I discovered a talent for gardening. I enjoyed gardening before Covid-19, but the hobby really took off during the 2020 lockdowns. I grew potatoes, onions, flowers, herbs- anything that could be planted, I planted!
• 
  2021-08-08

  Green Tomato Pickles

  Due to school closures because of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, I finally had time to start a vegetable garden. This was something that I had wanted to do for years, but by the time I was out of school in June and had the time, it was too late in the season to begin. As a side note, the fact that school buildings were closed in no way means we teachers were not working hard to try to continue the education process for our students. The pandemic did change how we taught, though, giving me more time to finally begin my vegetable garden. This story is specifically about my tomato plants and the green tomato pickles I made from them. I originally began my tomato plants from seeds on my kitchen windowsill in April. In mid-May, when they were about 8 inches tall, I transplanted them to a raised garden bed. This was my first experience growing a garden, so I overdid it with the number of vegetables I attempted to grow in my 4’ x 4’ space. Besides the tomatoes, I planted green beans, carrots, onions, beets, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. The tomatoes and squash took over and that was all I got. For some unknown reason, the first set of blossoms on the tomato plants didn’t produce any fruit. Late in the summer, I finally started to see some fruit, and it was early September before I was able to harvest any. At that point, though, they exploded with fruit. I live in the high desert north of Los Angeles and our weather is not quite as mild as the rest of LA County. We go our first freeze in mid-October. At that point I harvested about 5 lbs. of green tomatoes. A friend of mine had the same issue and decided to make green tomato salsa. I decided to make green tomato pickles. I used a combination of recipes. I have a Little House on the Prairie Cookbook that I experiment with from time to time, but I modified some of the spices that recipe called for because I wanted dill pickles. So, I played around with it until I had what I wanted. They were excellent! Then I did one more thing that I had never done before. I experimented with hot water bath canning so that I could preserve them longer. I ended up with eight jars of green tomato dill pickles, some of which made their way into Christmas gift baskets for friends and family. All of this was because I had more time on my hands due to COVID-19 and California’s Stay at Home order.
• 
  2021-08-02

  Jared Holmberg Oral History, 2021/08/02

  When the Pandemic first broke out, I was concerned that I would catch the virus since I was working in an elementary school at the time. I thought of various ways to boost my immune system and I thought making healthy soups sounded like the best idea. I looked through the internet and I found this healthy quinoa soup recipe. I tried it and absolutely loved it. It was savory, hearty, and contained a rich blend of rustic flavors. This dish became one of my favorites throughout 2020 and I still cook it from time to time. For anyone looking for a healthy way to fight the virus, I recommend this recipe.
• 
  2021-04-18

  Gardening: Feeding the Planet and Ourselves

  Gardening is something I learned I loved in the spring of 2019, and I noticed many differences during the pandemic. The garden centers were always busy, much busier than the year before. And often, they would be sold out of things such as vegetables. The article I have shared here I found while researching food insecurity. I have long thought that growing your own food is something that should be more widespread, especially among places of poverty. Of course, this article does not mention the fact that people living in extreme poverty barely have enough water to survive, let alone grow crops with. Regardless, this article makes good points about our soil, our diets, and the future of our planet and species. I think one good consequence of the pandemic is more people will turn to gardening, which opens up many more aspects of life.
• 
  2021-06-14

  Embracing the Plants

  Once the pandemic was in full swing, food became rather scarce out in the county where I live. Frozen meals? Gone. Frozen vegetables? Gone. Meat? Gone. Dairy products? Sparse. What I could find in abundance were fresh fruit and vegetables. Largely because these do not store long term and people were stocking up on everything that they could hoard for the long haul. Could I really sustain my meat-loving family of 4 on fresh fruits and vegetables to help stretch our very thin stock of meats and dairy products? I have included some basic recipes that I used to help get through the pandemic. This massive change in diet left a lasting impact on my experience of the pandemic through my sense of smell, taste, and hearing. Meals no longer smelled like warm cooked meat with roasting potatoes. Meals became light and fresh. My house began smelling more like a garden every time I prepared a meal. I also no longer smelled the warmth of the stove or the smell of a pan heating up, since we chose to eat a lot of the plants and fruits in a more raw style to get the maximum nutritional value. The taste of meals and snacks changed from processed foods to natural snacks like nuts, dates, and dried fruit. I could taste the change from the pandemic. Everyday noises that would occur in my pre-pandemic household were no longer present in my pandemic household. No longer was there the sound of the oven turning on, the microwave running, or oil popping in the pan on the stove top. Instead, the new normal sounds were that of the food processor to make hummus, the sound of the blender making smoothies, and the sharp tap of the knife colliding with the cutting board. The recipes I chose to include are ones that we started with that have changed the way we eat. These were the easiest to sustain with readily available produce in my rural area.
• 
  2020-08-06

  Getting really excited that I'm actually growing edible food in the garden!

  This post about a Canadian nutritionist reveals an individual's experience gardening this past summer during the pandemic. The caption includes how this person picked up gardening as a new hobby during lockdown and found how rewarding it was. This post will serve as a valuable story in how gardening became a popular activity for Canadians and offer one person's journey, including challenges, in starting a garden.
• 
  2020-10-08

  Over half of Canadians embracing the joy of pandemic gardening

  One study from Dalhousie University reported that "pandemic gardens" became a thing this past summer as thousands of Canadians across the country spent more time outside growing their own food. This article also reveals the reasoning behind why people took to gardening as one of their main sources of entertainment during lockdown and even afterwards. The study shows that Canadians gardened for a multitude of purposes. Not only did they want to spend more time outside, but some were also concerned about food affordability due to the shortage of produce. This article will further illuminate how Canadians viewed gardening as one of their favourite pastimes during COVID-19 through an informative survey.
• 2020-10-21

  Canning lid and jar shortage of 2020

  I can wholly relate to this article. First the shortages of many items such as hand sanitizers, toilet paper, and food in the first few weeks of the pandemic. But after this summer's growing season, I found myself with a lot of vegetables to can and no jars and/or lids in my local stores. I did not keep extra on hand nor did I think to get any until it was time to can. I did find some in Louisville on websites, but I refused to travel there since the numbers were very high. I eventually ordered some with no guarantee it would arrive before my vegetables went bad. But, in the meantime, I would check the stores in hopes a shipment came in before my online orders arrived. My vegetables and fruits needed to be canned or a whole season would be lost for what I could not freeze. I know it sounds silly to some people and the least of worries for others but for me, it was almost a half a year effort. It was food for my family for the next coming months. Next year this will be a funny story but for now, I will add this to my “The Year of 2020” list. I know many people will not see the humor in this but who knew canning lids and jars would be such a hot item. But it in a way does make sense since we were forced to stay home and be creative with our time until we reopened as a society.
• 
  2020-05-27

  New Beginnings Church Community Garden Started Amid COVID-19

  Sharon Annesley of Blanchard, Oklahoma tells the story of her rural church starting a community garden amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Her text document story chronicles how the church received the land and how they decided to create a garden that not only served their congregation but anyone in the community that wanted access. Sharon details what members contributed to the maintenance and what vegetables were growing there. She also articulates concerns that members expressed about potential food shortages and a garden's ability to address those concerns. Text document authored by Sharon Annesley, Member of New Beginnings Church - Blanchard. The story is titled under the heading "NEW BEGINNINGS CHURCH COMMUNITY GARDEN STARTED AMID COVID-19" (May 27, 2020) The story features photographs of the church garden. Sharon Annesley hand-submitted the physical copy of this document for submission to Clinton P. Roberts for the #ruralvoices collection. Contributed by Clinton P. Roberts, curatorial intern for Arizona State University, HST 580.
• 
  05/01/2020

  Planting seedlings

  I took this photo after planting about a hundred seedlings in a newly fenced and prepared veggie patch at my Dad’s old place south of Hobart. Our veggie patch has three tiered beds so far. The other half is shadowed by the fence in winter, so we won’t plant anything on that side until the sun gets higher in spring. We turned through our composted food scraps and manure from roadside stalls to prepare the soil and added straw mulch after planting the seedlings. Before lockdown, I only came down here for a couple of nights each week and it wouldn’t have been practical to put in a veggie patch, with all the tending it requires. But after a couple of weeks settling into the place in lockdown my boyfriend and I got a permacultural itch. We got the seedlings from a local place called Dave’s Organic Seedlings. Dave had been under the pump since lockdown started, and so our assortment of seedlings was whatever he had left (may have an excessive amount of cabbages). I think lots of people had the same idea as us. In fact, it felt more like an urge than idea. Something primal in us needed to work with the soil, and to feel more self-sufficient. At the same time, not knowing how long lockdown would last, planting the seedlings made me feel even more locked down, like we’d bound ourselves to this patch (getting three chooks probably didn’t help either). But for now, it’s comforting to watch them grow.
• 
  2020-03-17

  Grocery Store Madness

  Walking through the produce area of the grocery store, seeing no fresh fruit or vegetables