WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:10.759 The kitchen garden. Behind the old stone house, at the 2 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:14.439 end of Willow Lane, there was a garden that had 3 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:18.320 been growing for more than a hundred years. It was 4 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:23.399 not a formal garden with neat rows and labeled beds 5 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:28.199 and paths made of crushed gravel. It was a kitchen garden, 6 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:32.399 the kind that feeds a family, and it had the wild, 7 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:36.479 abundant look of something that had been loved and tended 8 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:41.799 by many different hands over many different seasons. There were 9 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:46.200 tomato plants that climbed wooden stakes and bore fruit the 10 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:51.799 color of sunset. There were rows of lettuce, green and ruffled, 11 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:56.280 and herbs that grew in thick, fragrant clumps. Along the 12 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:01.159 garden's edge. There were bean poles with vines twisted around 13 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:05.400 them like green ribbons, and a patch of squash whose 14 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:10.239 broad leaves covered the ground like umbrellas, and a single 15 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.680 fig tree at the center that cast a pool of 16 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:17.799 shade where you could sit and rest on a hot afternoon. 17 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:22.519 Elena had inherited the house and the garden from her grandmother, 18 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:26.400 who had inherited it from her mother, and so on 19 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:31.200 back through the years, until the garden's origins were lost 20 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:35.879 in the gentle fog of family memory. What Elena knew 21 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:40.280 was this, her grandmother had loved the garden, and her 22 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:44.560 grandmother's mother had loved it before her, and now it 23 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:48.200 was Elena's turn. She came to the house in the spring, 24 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:53.680 when the garden was just waking up. The soil was 25 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:57.599 dark and soft from the winter rains, and the first 26 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:02.640 green shoots were pushing through the surface, reaching for the sun. 27 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:08.000 Elena walked through the garden that first morning, running her 28 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.400 fingers along the wooden fence, peering at the emerging plants, 29 00:02:13.159 --> 00:02:17.159 reading the small, weathered markers that still stood in the 30 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:26.319 beds tomatoes, basil, rosemary. Time she knelt beside the tomato 31 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:30.199 bed and pressed her fingers into the soil. It was 32 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:34.319 cool and damp and alive, and she could feel the 33 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:38.840 tiny roots of the young plants beneath the surface, reaching 34 00:02:38.919 --> 00:02:45.080 down and outward, anchoring themselves for the growing season ahead. 35 00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:48.319 She stayed like that for a long time, on her 36 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:52.400 knees in the dirt, feeling the earth beneath her hands 37 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:56.319 and the sun on her back, and the quiet hum 38 00:02:56.520 --> 00:03:01.759 of life all around her. The garden required work, of course, 39 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:06.840 all gardens do. There were weeds to pull, and beds 40 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:11.039 to turn, and compost to spread, and seeds to plant. 41 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.479 But the work was not burdensome. It was the kind 42 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:18.919 of work that clears the mind, that brings you into 43 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.360 the present moment, that reminds you that you are a 44 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:26.960 living thing among other living things, connected to the soil 45 00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:31.520 and the rain and the sun. Elena fell into a rhythm. 46 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:36.560 She rose early, before the heat of the day, and 47 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:39.080 she walked through the garden with a cup of coffee, 48 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:43.919 checking on the plants, pulling a few weeds, bending down 49 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.000 to smell the basil or the rosemary. She talked to 50 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.360 the tomatoes, though she would not have admitted it to anyone. 51 00:03:52.599 --> 00:03:55.360 She told them to grow strong and tall, and to 52 00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:58.840 make lots of fruit. She told the beans to climb. 53 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:03.240 She told the lettuce to be sweet, and the garden listened. 54 00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:08.560 The tomatoes grew thick and heavy on their vines. The 55 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:14.560 beans climbed their poles with enthusiastic determination. The lettuce unfurled 56 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:18.959 new leaves each morning, green and crisp and perfect for 57 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:23.480 a summer salad. The herbs released their scent whenever she 58 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:27.480 brushed against them, a cloud of fragrance that followed her 59 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:31.600 through the garden like a gentle breeze. By midsummer, the 60 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:35.839 garden was in full riot. The tomato plants were laden 61 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:40.040 with fruit, red and yellow and green, and the bean 62 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:44.360 vines were thick with pods. And the squash had spread 63 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:47.319 across its corner of the garden like a green tide, 64 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:52.480 its yellow flowers opening each morning like small suns. The 65 00:04:52.519 --> 00:04:56.680 fig tree bore its first furt, small and green and hard, 66 00:04:57.560 --> 00:04:59.680 but Elena could see that there would be ripe by 67 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:04.839 such timber, sweet and purple and soft. She harvested what 68 00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:07.680 she needed each day, walking through the garden in the 69 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:09.879 cool of the morning with a basket on her arm, 70 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:15.680 a few tomatoes, a handful of beans, some lettuce, a 71 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:19.480 sprig of basil. She carried them back to the kitchen 72 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:22.800 and washed them at the sink, and the water ran 73 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:26.759 clear over the bright skins, and the kitchen filled with 74 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:30.720 the smell of fresh earth and green things. She cooked 75 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:34.959 simply as her grandmother had daughterr Tomato sliced thick and 76 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:40.000 layered with mozzarella and drizzled with olive oil. Beans steamed 77 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:43.600 with butter and a pinch of salt. Lettuce torn and 78 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:46.800 tossed with herbs from the garden and a squeeze of lemon. 79 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:51.759 She ate at the kitchen table with the window open 80 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:55.560 to the garden, and she could hear the bees moving 81 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:59.319 among the flowers and the birds calling from the fig tree. 82 00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:03.439 In the evenings, when the heat had passed, she sat 83 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:06.240 on the back steps and looked out at the garden 84 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:10.600 in the fading light. The plants were dark shapes against 85 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:14.120 the soil, their leaves silvered by the last of the sun. 86 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:19.160 The air smelled of earth and growing things, and somewhere 87 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:23.439 in the distance a church bell rang, marking the hour 88 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:28.360 in the slow, unhurried way of small villages. She thought 89 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:32.160 about her grandmother, who had stood on these same steps, 90 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.079 looking out at this same garden, and she felt a 91 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:40.600 connection that spanned the years, a thread of love and 92 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:43.279 labor that tied her to the women who had come 93 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:47.279 before her. They had each, in their turn, knelt in 94 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:52.040 this soil and tended these plants, and eaten from this garden. 95 00:06:52.839 --> 00:06:56.120 And now it was her turn, and she would do 96 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:59.399 it well, and some day some one would do it 97 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:03.480 after her. The garden was not just a place, It 98 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.439 was a promise, a covenant between the land and the people. 99 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:11.920 Who loved it. It said, I will tend you and 100 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.600 you will feed me. I will give you water and care, 101 00:07:16.279 --> 00:07:19.519 and you will give me tomatoes and beans and herbs 102 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:23.439 and figs. I will be here in the spring, and 103 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:27.000 you will be here in the summer, and together we 104 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:30.680 will make something beautiful. Elena sat on the steps as 105 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:34.079 the stars came out and the garden settled into its 106 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:38.639 night time silence, and the air grew cool, and she 107 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:42.120 felt a peace so deep and so complete that it 108 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:45.600 seemed to fill her entirely, from the soles of her 109 00:07:45.639 --> 00:07:48.360 feet to the crown of her head. She was home. 110 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:52.360 She was exactly where she was meant to be. She 111 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:55.959 went inside and closed the window against the night, and 112 00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:59.399 she washed her dishes and turned off the light. And 113 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:02.560 she lay in bed and listened to the quiet sounds 114 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:06.560 of the old house settling around her. And she thought 115 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:11.120 about the garden and the plants and the soil, and 116 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:16.000 the long, slow rhythm of growing things. And she slept, 117 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:19.160 and in her dreams the garden grew and grew green 118 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:22.800 and abundant and eternal. And she walked among the rows 119 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:26.120 with a basket on her arm, picking tomatoes and pulling 120 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:28.879 weeds and talking to the beans, and the sun was 121 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:32.039 warm on her back, and the air smelled of basil 122 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:35.519 and earth, and everything was exactly as it should be.