Summer's Bounty
© Leda Meredith
Sundown in Brooklyn. My hands smell of rosemary and my harvest bowl is bright with day lily petals. I fill another bowl with the wild greens I weeded out of my vegetable plot. I glance at the sky and pray for rain because the fire hydrant we use to water the community garden is broken. Somewhere nearby a neighbor is practicing Hendrix-style guitar. Only a few days to go till the first ripe tomatoes are ready to pick. Fireflies begin their here-not-here dance all around me as I head back towards our apartment.
I didn't get to the raspberries today, which are offering up their first ripe fruit. Nor did I get around to the lemon balm I want to harvest before it flowers. The bright yellow torches of mullein catch the fading light and remind me that I want to harvest the blossoms for medicine tomorrow. Oh and the peppergrass seeds need to be collected while they still have their spicy green flavor, and I must pick some of the spearmint that's starting to crowd the oregano?
From this small patch of earth, smaller than most suburban gardens but generous by metropolitan standards, I collect more than I need. I relish the fresh ingredients in dinner. I freeze, can, and dry winter supplies. And still there is a surplus.
No problem: I have friends and family to share it with. As I hang a bundle of lavender to dry, I catch a whiff of the Herbes de Provence I will make to send to my dad. I dry enough red clover blossoms for our teas and breads, and then twice as much to share with fellow wild food enthusiasts whom I've met online.
Tomorrow there will be crowded subways to ride and bills to pay, but tonight there is a wild greens omelet and sorrel soup.
Because I harvest wild foods as well as cultivated herbs, fruits and vegetables, there is never a lull in my harvest season. Each year I progress from excitement about the first small wild greens of spring to amazement at the abundance of summer. I feel wealthy because I can gather not only enough for our home but enough to share. It is as if every time I went shopping I bought half my groceries to mail to other people. I don't have the money to do that, but I do have summer, and many people will be receiving gifts that were kissed by sunsets and fireflies.
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