Growing Abundance–Eggplant Edition
I have a scarcity mindset. It is something that I have struggled with. But slowly as I grow, I am learning about all the ways that abundance does touch our lives, even in the simple way my garden grows eggplant. This week I share my thoughts on growing abundance–eggplant edition.
How my garden grows
My husband and I used to own and run a certified organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. We had hoped at one point that this farm would be our main income when we moved to our 40 acre homestead. But honestly it wasn’t a sustainable model for us, let alone a source of abundance.
Since making the decision to focus on off-farm work for financial support we have been looking for ways to turn our farm into a source of abundance in more esoteric ways for our family.
This year we started a small number of plants from seeds. We focused on foods we knew our family loved and would want to eat regularly like tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, water melon, and eggplant.
We planted them all in our hoop-house.
This year our spring in Minnesota was incredibly hot and we went for almost a whole month without rain. Luckily we did have a hose set up in our hoophouse, but we waited too long to start trying to combat the heat and only about 5 of the 25 eggplant plants survived.
How eggplant grows
In the past, especially when we were working our CSA it seemed like our plants often only gave us 3-4 fruit.
But this year we planted them in our hoop-house. After eating eggplant for a month already the first frost came. Since the plants were somewhat protected they survived several nights of frost. Eventually the leaves died back revealing the fruit that was still in good shape after several cold nights. I sent my husband to harvest them, saying, “I think there are about 15 [eggplant].”
He came back with a bag and overflowing bucket–over 40 eggplant!
Growing Abundance
This is of course more then we had thought we would get in a growing season from just 5 plants. Let alone we had already been eating eggplant for over a month.
Immediately I started thinking of ways to cook and preserve all these delicious gifts. As I was researching and cooking I noticed that the eggplant we grew ourselves did not have the bitter taste that is common with store bought eggplant. [To combat that slice thinly and salt one side. Let sit for 20 minutes then rinse in cold water and pat dry before using as usual].
I made eggplant parmesan, ratatouille, eggplant dip and froze some for baba ghanoush. Most of the recipes were not mine and I am not able to share them.
What really struck me as I was working with this abundance in eggplant, is how I was connecting with others. I had asked on Facebook for eggplant recipes and had many many responses, some from people I hadn’t talked to in awhile. This inspired phone calls, and reminiscing about dishes I had tried and enjoyed in the past at family gatherings.
Garden Abundance
I also realized that unless we had put in the work to grow those tiny plants at the beginning we wouldn’t be reaping these benefits. How often I think it would just be easier to buy what I need from the store, but the gifts of having more then I need would have been missed. The gift of this moment, of reaping the rewards of our work and looking for people to share it with would have been missed.
It is in growing that we are able to nourish not only ourselves but produce an abundance that can be shared. I encourage you to look for ways to grow–whether it is in a garden, or in a special talent that you have or a subject that you have always felt called to study.
But a garden is definitely a really solid and nourishing way to grow abundance.
