What They Found in the Garden

From Eatocracy.

"When Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his longtime partner Dr. Brent Ridge stumbled across a 19-century mansion for sale in the tiny, upstate New York village of Sharon Springs during an apple picking trip, little did they know they'd lay down roots.

Josh, a New York Times bestselling author, ad executive and former drag queen and Brent, a former VP of Healthy Living for Martha Stewart, spent the next several years transforming the Beekman Mansion's mostly abandoned barn and surrounding acres into the sustainable, working farm that now fuels their burgeoning goat soap and cheese brands at Beekman 1802. It also serves as the core of their reality show, The Fabulous Beekman Boys (Season 2 premiered tonight on Planet Green) and Josh's memoir 'The Bucolic Plague'.

As the pair connected with the land, establishing their heirloom vegetable garden and learning to grow nearly everything they ate, they realized they had also planted the seeds of self-discovery.

Josh and Brent asked iReporters, "What can growing your own food teach you about life? Maybe you learned about survival of the fittest while thinning carrot seedlings. Or perhaps did your grandmother share the family secrets while canning fresh tomatoes?"

iReporter Eric Sundman sees what it means for a healthy, informed future.

"It brings imagination to reality. From sandwiches to alcoholic beverages, anything in reason can become a masterpiece or the next big thing. Also you can get the same or more vitamins and or medical remedies from fruits and veggies grown in a garden, than a bottle of pills from ... whatever pharmacy you frequent. With enough knowledge of course."

"I am still learning about the many benefits of food. Especially when cooking is a real good stress reliever for me. I can cook and feel better [knowing] that I was productive and didn't have to buy ramen or pizza like most of the college students my age. I love to cook and hope to teach my children the benefits of cooking rather than buy, McDonalds, TV dinners and pills."

"I want to learn more so I can learn from my children and so I can teach them a trick or two to have a happier and healthier life."

Lee Gunderson of Calgary, who iReports as Kalalau123 puts it simply: "Food IS life."

Of gardening, he says:

"I was raised on a farm and taught how to garden by my grandmother, a pioneer, and learned all her gardening secrets in the 1950's in Northern Alberta where what we grew each summer sustained us all winter. If the garden failed, we would not eat."

"Tended daily it returns the love it is given in endless bounty. The food is superb and fresh. Watered only with rain water and screened with nets to protect from birds, it flourishes."

"However, the odd time a hungry wanderer passes by and helps himself. But is that what life is not all about? Sharing with the needy? And we have more than we need."

And commenter Merlie has learned a thing or two about self-reliance.

"My mother is a big gardener so I grew up around gardens, and I recently moved 'home' as she is elderly and the caretaker of a disabled sibling. SO – I also help out with the garden, mostly with harvest and prep of food for canning and freezing."

"She, (we) can tomatoes, beans, pickles, applesauce, carrots and fruit juice. Beets and some tomatoes are frozen. Raspberries and cherries are frozen. Potatoes, cabbage, peas, radishes, broccoli, kohlrabi and leafy stuff is eaten fresh in mass quantities in season. Potatoes, onions, squash and garlic are stored as long as they last."

"City girl I may be – but in the event of the destruction of civilization I'll be able to buy survival with the gardening and preservation skills that my wanna-be farmer mother taught me."