Book 23: People With Dirty Hands

People with Dirty Hands by Robin Chotzinoff. This is another re-read. I first read it when I lived in Napa and could grow all kinds of stuff in a giant elementary school garden AND in a garden and greenhouse on the property where I lived. Ah, Napa! I had a persimmon tree in my yard, which was exciting: FREE FRUIT! But then it was disappointing: Oh, THIS is what persimmons taste like.

I could also go to many parks and gather up free walnuts that fell out of trees. Free food was very appealing because I only made $4 per hour working for Americorps, and I really needed to conserve all cash for going out for beers with my co-"workers". As you may know, half my teammates were the laziest, worst kind of irresponsible hippies. Hence the "workers". They worked so hard at getting out of doing anything! And they were FILTHY! How did they get so dirty without doing anything? It was amazing.

Anyway, Chotzinoff lived near Denver when she wrote this book in 1996 (I don't know what she's up to now). She writes about some Coloradans, but also goes on road trips to find subjects. It's fun to read about Denver gardens and farming, because I live near Denver! Why is it so fun to read about your nearby city? It feels like you are almost famous.

In this book, she writes little portraits of various kinds of Plant People: those who are obsessed with tomatoes, hot pepper growers, a Cajun traiteur (kind of like a witch doctor, curing people with plant medicine), rose rustlers, and gentile estate holders, among others. Oh, it makes me long for a big yard where I can grow all kinds of flowers and foods and hang around enjoying the outside. I dream of a giant yard with a 6-foot fence around it to keep out neighborhood dogs and deer and spying neighbors (At least once a month, I catch a neighbor staring right in my windows -- it's creepy). But I will enjoy having any kind of yard at all that belongs to me and that I can feel is rather permanent, and therefore worth the investment of time, labor, and cost of seeds, bulbs, etc...