I started "gardening" in May of 2021. I just finished moving in with my wife's family and settling in was going smoothly enough. It was a strange transition, going from 5 years of happily committed but independent life to one where I was living with a newly expanded family. My own grandmother and grandfather passed away around this time, and I felt myself committed to being a better grandson-in-law than I was a grandson. One of the costs of moving across the world? Relationships.
Anyhow, I started to settle, was settling, and settled. I was part of something new and happy to be so, but the loss of grandma and grandpa nearly at once sent me into shock. I couldn't go home because of COVID. Mourning was private. Funerals and commiseration via ZOOM. Needing to go home but knowing I couldn't, I settled on a weird idea: if I couldn't get home, at least I could taste it. So, I started growing jalapeño peppers.
Admittedly, being from near Rochester, NY, jalapeños never accounted for a big part of the local cuisine, but I used them a lot in my own cooking. Finding a fresh chili in Fukui? It's no easy feat. So, I grew them.
I harvested the first flush too quickly. The peppers, while not flavorless, hadn't the time to develop their heat. When the next flush came, I waited patiently until there was some corking and excitedly harvested a 3-inch long fruit. I ate it fresh off the plant and felt a familiar crack of heat shoot through my head. How I'd missed that particular type of burn.
That jalapeño plant is now in its second season in the veranda garden. It's one of 20 different types of plants, ranging from flowers to herbs to veggies, most of which I didn't give a thought to when I lived in the States. See, the garden and the jalapeños started from a need to feel some sort of connection with home. What followed, though, was this deep dive: straight-out-of-sci-fi existence of mycorrizhal funghi; the amazing ways pollinators get their jobs done; regenerative cultivation.
My successes this season are more numerous than last, though my failures certainly are greater. There is so much I learn every day from YouTube, books, podcasts, but there is so much more to uncover. My goal through Trail, Table, Garden, the Natural Fukui Instagram, and my YouTube channel is to share, communicate, and put more into the world than I'm taking out of it. I hope you'll join in me the endeavor.
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