The Gift of Life

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Some of my raw creations
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Yesterday I started putting together the gift I'll be giving my godson Luc (age 8) for Christmas. He doesn't read this blog, so mentioning the gift won't spoil the surprise. I'm sharing this because someone out there may be wracking their brain, trying to figure out what to give someone (child or adult) ... and this blog post may come to the rescue.

This is a gift for all ages. It's also ideal because, once taken care of and attended to, it will continue to give to the recipient and loved ones all through the year(s).

The gift will also get the recipient into activities that are necessary in today's world:
(1) reducing, reusing and recycling
(2) planting our own organic food

I'm giving Luc three troughs, each containing rich, moist, fertile, dark brown, earth from Santa Cruz. The troughs are apple crates (crates that apples came packed in - available for free from any fruit vendor). This is an example of 'reusing', rather than purchasing expensive plastic crates from plant stores. The apple crates are perfectly good vessels that would otherwise have been tossed into some landfill.

Trough #1 contains basic seasoning: chadon beni and chive (will add other herbs too)
Trough #2 contains 4 green cabbages and two melongene plants
Trough #3 contains 4 lettuce plants and some more chadon beni

Maybe I'll buy a child's watering can to go with it.

This is a good start. Pretty soon he will be able to harvest his own crops ... although, these are the kinds of foods that children generally don't like.

But maybe he'll start to like greens because he's growing them.

Based on my own experience as a child, I'm assuming he'll enjoy having his own kitchen garden. I used to have a few beds in the back yard where I grew every imaginable seed or growable item that passed through the kitchen: pigeon peas, corn, pumpkin, watermelon, potato, etc.