Lisaland in Otricoli, Italy

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The backyard at Lisa's house in Chicago, full of future gardeners.
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Katie's journal: Growing it forward; sowing the past to support the future.

By: YourGardenShow
May 07, 2012

I'm a Chicago girl, with a deep sense of Mexico running through my blood, transplanted to the Italian countryside, for the time being, with the purpose of growing it forward with a legacy garden in the memory of a dear friend, Lisa Marini.
With all the weeding I've done in the last week I've had a lot of time to think; about how it is I've come to be here, about where I have been on the journey, about what I want to make of all this.  The path I've been on, without a doubt, started in the hot and humid summer days of Chicago, dandelions in my hair (Dad gave me a penny for every one I picked, but I had to get their roots!), hands sticky from a watermelon snack, plucking cherry tomatoes from their vines and bursting them in my cheek to see how far their seeds would fly. My memories are all centered around the yard, namely those of my family and of Lisa's family, separated only by a few blocks. The days were spent doing anything and everything in the yard, the younger generation usually occupying the swingsets and slip'n'slides, the adults tending to their gardens. The days would culminate at the picnic tables over a meal harvested only hours before. We all devoured the garden's bounty. I was excited that my very hands had picked those tomatoes that Mom sliced, salted and peppered. Mom was excited that those tomatoes, which I had picked, she had planted; she knew their history, she knew what she was feeding her family was good, healthy food.  

 Now if elotes (corn dressed with mayo, lime, cotija cheese and chili powder; a signature Mexican fare) hadn't been a staple of the backyard BBQs at Lisa's house, would I still have wound up living in Mexico? Who can say? Whether it was those memories of the maiz of my childhood or if it was solely the wind or something a little larger at work, I wound up in a Zapotec community in the mountains of Oaxaca, surrounded by corn. Corn of all shapes and sizes, corn of all colors, corn unlike any I had ever seen before. As I sat by the kitchen fire of a family dear to me, eating an elote harvested from their ranch earlier in the day, I thought of their growing practices. The corn I was eating was the same corn their ancestors had eaten generations before. Each year's crop yielded the next year's seed; it always had; it always will. Living in this, economically, very poor community and sharing many a meal with its residents, there was never a shortage of food.  Friends told me on many occasions that they were poor but they had what they needed and they were never without food. Food was abundant, shared and celebrated and what I saw in those kitchens was the same thing I saw in my own Chicago backyard, mothers proud to be feeding their families good, healthy food.  

 I find myself now in Otricoli, Italy continuing the garden Lisa Marini started last season, in her last year of life.  We started this season by spreading some of Lisa's ashes into the beds, literally growing her forward as we grow her garden and legacy forward. Every step taken in the garden is taken with an eye toward the future; we dug a fourth bed for more space, we have set up the garden with a rotational growing plan so the soil will maintain it's nutrients for seasons to come, we are growing heirloom vegetable varieties to assure safe seeds for the seasons ahead. As the corn gets a little higher and the tomatoes get ready to transplant I think of Lisa, I think of my mother, I think of my friends in Oaxaca and I am proud to be carrying on this legacy, growing good, healthy food and guaranteeing more for the future.
JMTKMS replied about 1 year ago
I think Lisa is smiling.  :)
krandolph replied about 1 year ago
This made me cry... but it makes me think Lisa is still pulling the strings (planting the seeds?) from some lofty vantage point... beautifully written, my dear.
Claire replied about 1 year ago
Wonderful. Childhood gardens and wonderful moms (and dads) are an inspiration.
Queen_of_Green replied about 1 year ago
What great memories with your dear friend... I think she is watching over you and very proud of what you are doing in her memory. Very nicely written... :)

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