Living simply in an industrialized society takes deliberate thought. As an adult, I know that food isn’t produced in a grocery store or in a local drive-thru. However, my children are another matter. While they know in theory that food comes from farmers, the manner in which we attain our food (with a plastic card in an air-conditioned chain store) can leave a disconnect in their young minds. While one might argue that they will make the connection as they get a little older, I would counter that sitting down to a pot roast after playing video games all day would undo any sophisticated economic lesson.

In our society, we exchange our labor (most often, this is mental labor, not physical) for money and our money for food. When you further add in barriers such as taxes, banks, credit lines, and commuting, the disconnect between work and food is even greater. Furthermore, the case has been made elsewhere that the greater the space between the consumer and his food, the lesser the concern for quality—hence, the acceptable use of pesticides, excessive processing, and mishandling.

While my suburban landscape is humble, the garden accomplishes an important task: it reminds our family of what we need for life– God, food, and shelter. When your life is spent keeping up with the Jones’, trying on designer clothes, and taking personal-peace-and-affluence classes at the local night college, it is painful to return to the basics. Broken homes and marriages often result. Financial pressure is more often a lack of contentness and/or mismanagement of current funds than a lack of funds in itself.

Why is it important that children make the connection between food and work? Because I want my children to accomplish all that God has called them to do in this life, and they can’t do that chasing peripherals. If they invest in depreciating activities and assets, they will spend their lives in the hamster wheel of life: striving to get ahead, not knowing how to get off, and not even realizing that they should.

I’m not advocating poverty; on the contrary, wealth and abundance are eventual signs of simple living. (I will defend that statement in another post.) Should you enjoy your wealth? Yes… after your work is done. If my son ever found himself down to his last dollar, I hope he’d buy a package of cabbage seeds and not a bus ticket to the welfare line. Eating is the reward of work, and the backyard garden reminds us well of this truth.

planting site
Planting bed for the strawberries.