Their garden is their refuge
“My mom gardened a lot when I was younger. And way, way back, my grandfathers on both sides were potato farmers from Maine. So I wonder if there’s not something in my genes that just makes me want to grow stuff.
“My husband and I started with a little 4-by-4 garden, growing some tomato plants. Then we started growing more and more things, and experimenting. It was a lot of fun. The world seemed so crazy at that time. So we thought, when you can’t really control anything else around you, wouldn’t it be nice to grow our own food? We were working low-wage jobs, and I was in school. It was just so hard to pay for anything extra. We weren’t sure how we were going to make ends meet. It was a way for us to have a very cheap hobby that was like an investment. You actually get something back that’s tangible.
“From there, we moved from the concept of gardening to permaculture. In general how we grow things in the United States is a monoculture where you grow one thing, like a whole field of corn or strawberries. Permaculture is permanent culture. You do something that kind of mimics a natural forest. You plant trees, like canopy trees, and then understory trees, and then you grow things all around it. It creates a food web that makes it a lot more sustainable. It also gives you a variety of foods that you can’t always get at the store. It’s kind of hard to get kumquats and loquats and fresh figs, those kinds of things. And it’s convenient. Say if you want some basil. Instead of going all the way to Kroger, you can just walk out your back door steps.
“I think that if everybody gardened, a lot of problems could be solved. If something bad did happen, and everybody had a basic little bit of gardening, they’d stand a better chance of providing for their family. Plus, it’s good for mental health. Everybody is so busy, they don’t have time to do anything for themselves. If you can get somebody started gardening, they might go out there for two or three minutes, and they’ll end up staying for 10 or 15. And they’re doing something kind of mindful.
“We have a young baby, and we both work a lot. Our jobs are exhausting in different ways. But having the garden, and the way that we grow, it’s like knowing you’re doing something good for the environment that’s also good for your household. For us, it’s our refuge.”
— Catherine Hunter-McMillin (with husband, Matthew)
The couple run The Enchanted Food Forest of Southeast Texas from their home in Liberty.
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