Sunday, March 11, 2012

post-reconceptualization and urban vegetables


Today’s blog comes from one of abby’s best friends, Shannon. Shannon teaches a variety of social studies classes at an incredible high school in Lafayette, IN, that seeks to re-imagine what education looks like. You can learn more about her school here

At Shannon’s request, abby has lovingly edited this post to provide some context.

Food list
Breakfast: Vegan Chocolate Chip Pancake w/ no syrup, grapes, scrambled eggs w/ cheddar
Lunch: vegetarian corn dog, waffle fries cooked in peanut oil
Dinner: quesadilla from a Indianapolis-based Mexican restaurant, piña colada

Some Reflections
Abby and I have been friends for 8 years.  In that period of time, she has continued to raise my awareness of a multitude of issues including theology, social justice, what it means to be a vegetarian vs. a vegan, and the many variety of ways to incorporate Smokey the Bear into all facets of life.

I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, but as you can see from my diet today, Abby’s weekend stay with me has allowed me to broaden my dietary spectrum.  As she was updating another post on this blog, I inquired about what she was writing.  I instantly became fascinated by the content of this work, and how, in it’s own unique way, it relates to my current studies in the field of curriculum theory.  Presently, I am studying the post-reconceptualization in curriculum studies, which essentially combines seemingly unrelated parts of various fields into their own niche in curriculum theory. 

Based on Abby and Erika’s work thus far, this looks like a similar venture in the realm of theological and environmental studies (abby’s note: I have to work harder to expose her to more of this!).  I welcome these new niches in academia and the “real world” because they reveal the truth about the interconnectedness of our world and how nothing operates in isolation.  This idea of interconnectedness is foundational to my life as a high school teacher trying to make every aspect of school connect to the real lives of my students.  So this is my attempt to contribute to a burgeoning field which not only raises awareness about our planet and sustainability, but also promotes a healthy lifestyle for all.

these are not shannon's cucumbers.
So this is a little about my experience with container gardening.

I need to be honest from the get-go.  I have never really had much of a green thumb nor have I ever really envisioned myself becoming passionate about planting, gardening, etc.  I always thought of gardening as something that people who lived in the country did as a hobby or because they had limited access to a grocery store.  (Because, why else would you take the time to plant a seed and nurture a crop that may or may not successfully produce?  That takes so much time and effort when you could just go to the grocery store and buy the finished product.  Plus, you might have to get dirt under your fingernails!  Ewww.  People who garden obviously did this because they had to in order to survive, right????)

But last summer, my boyfriend started a container garden, or an urban garden, right on our back patio.  (As renters, our “patio” is a concrete slab about 6 feet by 8 feet big.)   While I did not necessarily discourage this venture, I was not convinced that anything would grow out of planters and pots intended for flowers.  (Yes, that’s right.  In my extraordinarily limited view of gardening, pots and planters could only be used for flowers.  Haha.  I literally laugh out loud at myself for having such a narrow view at that point in time.)

However, it did not take long for me to come to view our little urban garden as something I loved and desired to nurture and care for until the fruits and vegetables grew to complete maturation.  I often found myself racing home from work in hopes that I was the first one home so that I could water the garden and check for new fruit.  Needless to say, our little urban garden was a success.  The fruits and vegetables that grew in our garden became a huge point of pride for me as we shared them with our family and friends in meals.  I even began to take note of things I wanted to do differently next summer in order to produce more, better, or new yields. 

Beyond the simple joy of caring for another living thing and also reaping the fruits of our labor, urban gardening raised my awareness about the relative ease with which I can produce items that I would regularly buy at the grocery store.  There was comfort for me in knowing exactly how our fruits and vegetables had been cared for and prepared. There was almost relief in knowing that there were no invisible ingredients in our produce; it was very much a “what you see is what you get” situation. There were unintended consequences as well.  In addition to coming up with new recipes and opportunities to use cucumbers and the other items that we had in absolute abundance, I tried my hand at canning vegetables for the first time, too. 

It is only a matter opening our minds to the array of possibilities surrounding human-Earth relationships.  These interactions can come in a multitude of shapes and sizes and (evidently) do not require large plots of land and limited access to grocery stores. 

At its core, ethics is about seeking the good life. Shannon does practical ethics in her classroom every day, and she’s expanding into the world of environmental ethics this spring as she works with some of her students to create a garden on the grounds of her high school.

want to learn more about container gardening? visit http://urbanext.illinois.edu/containergardening/

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