Living Wild in a Domesticated Society
Growing up, large portions of my summer were spent working in our garden. When I say garden, let me lay this out so you understand a little better. This wasn't your standard vegetable garden that you see in somebody's back yard with a little fence around it and a cute little scarecrow propped up in the center. Our garden was big. It varied a bit over the years, but on average it was about 30 yards wide and 50 yards long. We grew pretty much everything that would survive in Michigan, from asparagus to zucchini. We had your standards like green beans, potatoes, and tomatoes, but we also grew okra, tomatillos, and kholrabi. There were melons, squash, and root vegetables.We made our own pickles, spaghetti sauce, and relish. We canned beets. We froze strawberries, rasberries, and corn. Our garden provided a very large percentage of our food throughout the year. Besides the garden, we also foraged. We'd hunt for morels in the spring. We would pick black raspberries and blackberr...