I use the term “kitchen garden” a lot. As you may have guessed, it is the name for my garden right off my kitchen door.
It’s certainly not a term I say to be posh or bougie, as the kids say (something I have never been accused of in my life except maybe sarcastically as I talk to the neighbors over my slab wood fence, holding a chicken in my pajamas).
In this season especially, I think “what will be ready tonight for supper? “Or “what’s good to go in this omelette for breakfast?” Or “I know what this dish needs” and I pop out to the garden for it.
In other seasons, I think to what is preserved on the shelves or what is in season in our area like deer hunting season or fish.
But it has recently occurred to me that maybe this IS considered privilege now.
Not in the way most people measure wealth by dollars and assets but rich in a very food insecure world.
It is privilege to own our own land, grow our own food and to be able to have food to eat every day.
Because for increasing numbers of people now breakfast comes dead in a box served by the school because there isn’t enough food at home, or is prepared by someone else, then passed through a window and eaten in a car.
I recently watched the 2012 movie “The Queen of Versailles”. It was written about in “We Are What We Eat -A Slow Food Manifesto by Alice Waters. There is a scene where Jackie, worth 6.13 billion is eating McDonald’s in her limo as they struggle to build the biggest house in America-around 90,000 square feet.
So what does privilege really mean anymore? What is true food security and locally produced food valued to us as a culture? Which is worth cultivating in our children -teaching skills for kitchen gardens or cultivating wealth to eat fast food everyday in expensive cars?
My grandson recently “graduated” from preschool. At the closing ceremony, I listened to 38 children recite what they wanted to be when they grew up. Not one wanted to be a farmer.
My grandson did say his favorite animal was a pig, so I guess I will have to be happy with small victories until he grows up and hopefully connects the dots.
