Most people have seen produce grown in a garden or fruit in a small orchard or vineyard. Even after being raised on a farm, I am still surprised every time I see these commodities grown on a large scale. The first produce farm that intrigued me was a cucumber farm. Just imagine tons of green cucumbers being rolled from the ground and piled onto a trailer. If you get a chance to watch this production, you should. Otherwise, you should surf on over to Youtube and search for cucumber farming. It’s definitely a sight to see.
When I think of farming, major commodities like corn, cotton, and soy beans are the first to pop in my head. But we often forget that even mustard, spearmint, and strawberries have to be farmed in large quantities to keep up with the populations.
Instagram is a fun social media that is easy to navigate to find specific niches thanks to the #hashtag categorization. Alex and I were stalking researching a farmer’s Instagram pictures of his South African vegetable and grape farm last night and were both fascinated by the different commodity productions. I am not sure if the farmer would appreciate me posting his pictures on my blog, so you should do some stalking researching of your own!
Moral of this post- be mindful that what you see in the grocery store is far different from the origin. It takes a lot of hard work and nurturing dedication to get a field full of onions into individual bulbs under the produce aisle- stop and take some time to appreciate it all every once in a while. Each individual flavor in your bite of food took precise craftmanship to get to that point. When you bless your food “and the hands that prepared it”, remember that many hands have helped in the preparation- not just those of your mom or whoever cooked the meal.
And I’ll leave you with this video of Jennifer Lawrence, better known as Katniss from the Hunger Games movies. Even after falling down while walking up to accept her award at the Oscars, she is able to laugh at herself and stay humbled. We can all take a lesson from her there.
Love always,
Addie
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” – Thornton Wilder
Breaking out of the Bootheel 