THE TASTE TEST - Part One

What a wonderful start to my day!  I was outside tending the garden when my neighbor kids' friend Joshua came by looking for my neighbor kid Uriah.  I make it a point to say hi to all the neighbor kids cuz they rock.  They're also the future of Hilltop Urban Gardens and I want to get them as early as possible!!

I asked Josh if he wanted to sample some orange tomatoes and he said, "Sure!"  Uriah was into it too, but he already knew he didn't like the orange cherry tomatoes.  Josh sampled and totally did not like them.  I'm really curious what it is they don't like.  I think they are super sweet and delicious.  I wonder if their "foreign" color may have something to do with it.

At some point Uriah asked me if I had to go to work today.  What a joy to answer this was my work today!

Josh was actually much more curious about what the green (i.e. not ripe) tomatoes tasted like.  He kept asking me and I kept trying to give him an answer that would shut him down.  Silly me!  I'm so happy that kids are persistent.  I finally started asking me own damn self what green tomatoes tasted like.  So I said, "Sure, lets give one a taste.  Let me go inside and get a knife to cut it up."  When I came back, Josh picked out a tomato to cut open.  I honestly didn't know what it would look like and was surprised when we cut it open and it looked like.... a green tomato.

Ha, Ha.  Silly me!  We tasted them.  Josh said he actually liked it better than the orange one.  Curious?  It could have ended there, but I had an idea.

I am working with magic and practicality to birth an urban gardening project in my community.  What this means when kids are around is that I want to make their engagement in the garden as filled with wonder, curiosity, exploration and fun as I possibly can! (not to mention mutual respect, challenge, creativity, earth-based thinking ---add more juicy descriptors at your pleasure---)

I was pretty sure that they both would like something growing in my garden so I proposed the idea of a taste test!  We would sample orange and red tomatoes, jalapa and chili peppers.  They were eager to proceed.  But before we could move forward Uriah had to take a bath and get dressed for the day...


postscript:  While Uriah was doing his morning ritual he yelled out the window and asked if I had to go to work today.  What a joy to answer back that this was my work today!