The First Lady in Green

The First Lady of our Home

“Where do we get our vegetables from” I asked my 4 year old daughter in my regular practice of making them generally aware of their surroundings.

Mama, “from Sabziwala uncle”….prompt came up the reply from the little bundle of curiosity. She expected an appreciation, some gesture to get applauded for her knowledge. I nodded in accordance not to dissuade her spirit to answer, but the response of my question startled me …of how limited her knowledge is and I am the main culprit. I have not exposed her to the wonders of our dear Gaia, the earth.

The disturbance caused a severe insomnia followed by a plan, but I was apprehensive. Being brought up in the industrial city of Haryana and now domesticated in the jungle of concrete, it was a herculean task to teach by example. To succeed in a unknown territory also carried the risk of failure, that too in the role of a mom, it’s not quite easy to share your failure with your kids. It was easier to teach her everything on Internet but teaching her by example was not easy at all.

Without much ado and exploration, I asked for some seeds from my Mom and with help of the gardener, I thought of sacrificing half of my lawn in front for this task to demo the beauty of soil and nature. So we removed grass and had sown seeds of ladyfinger, my favorite vegetable catering to all moods. I remained the subject of mockery of my husband who ridiculed that for half a kg. Veggies, why cause distortion of lawn and extra pain. I knew about the visual memory and the impact of practical teaching on little minds so I kept mum. And I knew showing a video on YouTube this time would not work either.

One neighbor aunt saw some plants sprouting and said what is there? I proudly shared my new endeavor, oh she said why Ladyfinger, it’s not the right season. I could not hope much in vain…still I let the nature follow its course and watched. After almost a month, noticed some beautiful flowers in white/lemonish tinge over ladyfinger plants.

The Ladyfinger flower 

After few days, my husband called me out to find some small buds of many ladyfingers, I kept silent smiling.His gesture proved upon his level of interest and the liitle child with in him curious enough.

 In a week, we encountered healthy tall shiny ladyfingers blooming. 

The first harvest

It was time to finally bring those home grown ladyfingers to kitchen and relish. Like a mom, I photographed each step of my pet ladyfingers and gave my daughter a chance to actually experience the exhilaration. For some, it’s insignificant, and not at all worth noticing but for a novice urban woman, it’s not the number of ladyfingers harvested that matters, it’s the human evolution, being the catalyst and experiencing the development process. It’s an inexplicable feeling, to witness the journey from seed to fruit. It’s not a big deal or maybe it is…as the heart is content.

And now I am relieved too with the answer of the question, from where do we get our veggies from?