Aired Sunday, April 7, 2013
Sorting through seeds saved over a couple of decades, I recognize them as family heirlooms.
On a stormy Saturday evening, I decided to sort through the garden seeds that take up over a quarter of the refrigerator, in preparation for spring planting. Opening the dirt-stained packets unfurled memories of visits to garden nurseries, my great-grandmother's garden, and the opium poppies that bloomed in my mother's yard. I repeated the names of the seeds I have grown and saved over two decades, speaking their names like a lineage of ancestors. I'll likely leave my children some well loved family antiques, and a trail of papers, books and fabric scraps. What I hope they will treasure most, though, are the seeds that have shared the rain and sun and soil of our shared garden.
