Sowing seeds

I grew up in a house in a small town. We had a medium sized backyard in which I spent a lot of time. When I was younger that backyard had a lot of edible plants. There was an apple tree on top of a small hill that had green apples during spring and summer. There were a lot of apples and the ones we could not catch fell to the ground and made the ground wet and mushy. The ones we picked we ate, made apple pies or took with us to the stable to feed the horses. Eventually that tree was cut down when we could not take the mushy ground any longer. In its place we put up a large trampoline.

We had a cherry tree as well! I really loved to climb it and sit there picking them fresh to eat immediately. Mother made cherry pie and cherry jam, also just sugared cherries in a bowl. One day when I was sitting in the tree I noticed an ant. Then another one. This was during the time when my phobia for ants started to really kick in. I could not handle it. There were so many ants, they probably lived inside the trunk. We cut it down and I remember the man cutting it down made an X over the little stump to prevent it from regrowing.

Another thing that we had was a snow pea tree but we did not do anything with them. I do not think anybody understood what these were or that they were even edible. It is only during later years that I have realised this. I remember picking green things from the branches, which had a lot of these green balls, and I opened them to drag my thumb along the slippery inside and watch as small balls flopped to the ground. A pure joy for little Ellie. Never did I know that I could have tasted them (but would probably not have liked them).

Apart from trees we had bushes. One with black currant and one red currant. I never liked the black but I went there often to pick some of the red ones and carry around with me to snack whenever I wanted. They never lasted long though and I often went to get more. Next to these two bushes was a third which had gooseberries. These are still my favourite berries of all time, even in sodas and desserts. I ate most of them and loved the sweet taste. I usually picked them too early so they were still sour in my mouth but I liked them just as much.

Lastly we had raspberry bushes along the outside of my bedroom window. These had a lot of raspberries during summer and they were picked often in large quantities. We made raspberry pies and jam. I also just filled a bowl to eat on the trampoline. I used to close the door to my room and lock the door for ultimate privacy, then open the window and reach out to pick the largest I could find.

14 year old Ellinor.

Growing up with all these plants in my backyard has made me truly excited to plant my own one day. After moving away from the house I was anxious to have something to snack on in my home. Not until my dad and I moved to Stockholm did we actually try to plant something. Strawberries in three pots. Naturally we noticed only afterwards that these were specifically made for gardens, needing of a lot of sunshine and space. That did not stop them from growing and eventually give us some berries. When I moved in with John those plants stayed behind. Living with John and two other guys for a while stopped me from even trying to plant something.

Today I planted two things... well, one really. Not berries, although I wanted to but John told me to try something simpler. We bought chives (which I also have a childhood story of when we planted chives in our summer house and I stole the bucket and sat in a hidden spot where I ate them all until there was only short grass barely above the soil left). I also planted cat-grass which we already had, but last time we planted them it was in this small plastic container and Ymir could not eat it because everything just came out when he tried to grab it. I was so happy to put my hands into soil and pour seed onto it and put it outside! Gardening makes me happy, even the smaller gardening made inside an apartment and only in pots. I will keep the blog updated on how it goes!