This is one of my favorite blogs written in Napa Valley in 2009, and it returns in 2012 at a time of spring (early spring in Colorado) renewal. I am rediscovering the importance of the garden. The rich and pastoral gardens that Americans tended in the 18th and 19th centuries, Victory Gardens of the 1940's, the tenement gardens in city brownstones, the 21st century poly-cultural rooftop gardens in Germany and Scandanavia and the plots of local and organic tilled earth that sustain myself and 12Seasons... Enjoy the garden. Btw, I apologize for the different background color. Hey, I'm a chef not a magazine editor... What follow
In the Garden is of special note to those who are intrigued by the human existance... -R
59
– In the Garden
“Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration”.
~ Lou Erickson
My Sunday evening ended on Monday morning at 1:30 a.m. One hour drive to Santa Rosa in the rain, fog
and dark. I realized then, at 2:30 a.m., that I wasn't going to make a scheduled
7:30 a.m. shift in The French Laundry garden. In bed at 3:00, I
"slept" until 6:30 a.m.
Refreshed (!) from my 3 ½ hours of REM-deprived horizontal-ness, I
showered, packed for my weekend (Angel's Camp, California - home to the
"Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Samuel L. Clemens -
with my mother, brother and sister-in-law) trip and hustled into Napa Valley,
arriving at TFL at 8:00 a.m.. Yes, I was late. I knew I had to atone for my
belated start. My apologies were accepted and I went to work. My day consisted
of: trimming and scissor-snipping the green onions, removing the brown withered
tops and giving them a "spikey-funky" haircut...; weed all the
newly-sprouted fennel seedlings; tend the beds of micro-greens and weed them
accordingly; spread the thyme, cabbage and greens beds with new straw bale for
the expected weekend crowds during the Taste of Yountville; rake and
keep the grassy areas between the plots clean and orderly; tend, hoe and weed
the Spring Onion bed...
“What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it”. ~
Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1871
Ouch. I begrudgingly tended gardens as a child in Sutton, Massachusetts and
have home-gardened at various places that I have lived. The difference is - now
I'm 50, and this is no home garden I tend...
However, I went at my tasks with new-found excitement. I really enjoyed
the elements and the work. The stretching every 15 minutes or so was necessary,
and saw others doing the same... "Tonight is going to be a four-Ibuprophen
night", I remember thinking...and, it was. Especially after the five hours
I spent night-driving south to Angels' camp. That's another story...
“There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to
creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling”. ~ Mirabel
Osler
I found myself outdoors for more than eight hours. Eight hours of driving rain,
sunshine, wind, drizzle and a continuous flow of passers-by who were eager to
walk among the well-manicured plots and stop to, like Ferdinand The Bull,
"smell the flowers (or herbs)", take pictures of their loved ones or
aimlessly stroll from one end of the garden to the other - all with smiles on
their faces. I smiled, too.
“Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm
holding up until your back gets used to It”. ~ Unknown
I respect those that grow things. It fulfills their soul and takes all their
time. Time to do it well. It takes passion. Think of the possibilities.
Heirlooms. Flowers. Seeds. Earth and soil. Water. Sun and natural fertilizers.
Earthworms, ladybugs and the micro-geography of the garden. The quiet solitude
in the garden belies the physical effort it takes to till the earth with bare
or gloved hands and toil under sun or clouds to grow the flowers, tubers, herbs,
roots and plants that we use as food. My day was just a small contribution to
the efforts that are put forth by TFL Head Gardener and staff. Lovely
to look at, the sundry plots of vegetables and herbs are a necessary
part-of-the-whole-experience that is, The French Laundry.
It was, in spite of my back pain - a great day.
Peace.
~R
If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos. - E.O. Wilson
Man, an Unexpressed God (This is a 1974 review of a book written by Rene Dubos titled 'A God Within'. As an Anthropology student I was deeply moved by the tome and have referred to it often. Buy it, read it and then lay out in a hay field gazing at the clouds overhead and you too might become a chef...) -R
By Michael Cosser
Human life should grow, not quantitatively through the conquest of nature, but qualitatively in cooperation with nature.
- Rene Dubos, A God Within
The quality of the inherent nature of man is an important topic raised by a book by the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Rene Dubos:
A God Within (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1972).The author is not only a famous microbiologist, but also one of the leading supporters of the view that our ecosystem is in danger because of the devastating side effects of modern technology. He is not opposed to industrialization as such, only to its advance in total disregard of the effects of its indestructible waste products which cannot be absorbed into the despoiled environment. Irreducible plastic containers piling up in their millions provide mute testimony, contrasting with the debris of ancient civilizations which was taken back into the natural habitat. The most valuable contribution of the book is its stimulation of thoughts about the distinctive characteristics of man and, by implication, of the cosmic life patterns of which he is a part.
At the very outset, Dr. Dubos raises the interesting concept of
entheos, a Greek term meaning 'god within,' from which our familiar word enthusiasm comes. He states it is this that drives man on into ever new ventures and greater creativity. Yet it would be better to say that it is not only enthusiasm in the ordinary sense, but also inspiration, for both are expressions of
entheos, the god within. This suggests the kind of enthusiasm that Plato might have had in mind when he said the power of the poet to move the souls of men came through an ecstasy or 'divine mania' resulting from an overshadowing or 'possession' by the god Apollo, symbol of the
Logos or universal mind.
This point of view opens up a larger vista of what is implied by the Greek term
entheos, encompassing much more than the peculiarities of a personality that lasts only one lifetime. Dubos expounds it 'scientifically,' as the manifestation of what we inherit genetically and distill from our experience. He says that our ideals and what we commit ourselves to, flow from or are the expression of this
entheos, thus accounting for the kinds of thoughts which emerge from us, and what we do. But does this really explain how and why we react to our surroundings and what happens to us in life? Does it describe the factors that combine to make us unique individuals? Happenstance and randomness cannot account for the various phenomena found in nature, such as the endless replication throughout a lifetime of each individual's distinctive DNA molecules, which are the
vehicles of innate characteristics, not their creators.
The persistence of individuality cannot yet be explained in biological terms. Even though nerve cells do not multiply after birth, they keep growing at a rate matching the fastest proliferating cells of the adult body, and yet amidst all this flux, the mind retains a sense of identity throughout life. This stability implies the existence of a pattern of neural organization that is essentially independent of metabolic changes.
Does this not point to the presence within us of an
entity of some kind that is the real center of the magnetic field we call a man, and of which we see but the outer ranges or integuments?
What everyone values most is his or her own individuality. Yet, by and large, sociologists and behaviorists try to explain human phenomena merely by generalizing from certain common traits observed in the 'hothouse' conditions of modem cities. They assert that the consciousness part of a human being consists only of biological and psychological factors arising from family inheritance and environment, and now incorporated into body and mind. Their findings are even being applied retrospectively to the study of historic peoples whose outlooks must have been quite different from those prevailing today. The real creators, the artists and thinkers, of long-gone civilizations, whose record we can only guess at from the broken shards, scattered references in old writings, and ruins, are veiled from our eyes.
The special "I-ness" that is the core of each one of us has experienced many things in a long succession of earthly vehicles. The various expressions of man's thinking and doing arise from the central individuality that continues as an identity through all the changes and vicissitudes of daily life. This is part of the process of a never-ending refinement of quality emanating from inside and tempered by the new circumstances that spring up from old causes sown like seeds in this or previous lifetimes.
Man's life "depends upon a hierarchical order," says Dr. Dubos, a suggestive concept that has its roots in antiquity. Not only was it then understood that the whole cosmos is comprised of families or hierarchies of entities, interlocking to embody the consciousness of the whole, but also that we ourselves compound a hierarchy of selves. These range from the most physical field, or body, to the most elevated or spiritual-divine. This thought can be expressed in another way, again quoting from the author:
Individuality is thus "becoming" rather than "being," a continuously evolving structure made up of inherited and acquired characteristics that are integrated at each step into an organic whole.
If we interpret the "inheritance" to mean what we have taken up from our own past lives, then the "becoming" and "evolving" more surely fit the development of faculty from the central essence within.
A flower illustrates this point very well. At first there is scarcely a speck, insignificant in size but already bearing within the "empty space in its heart" the design that will swell out into a small bud and reach its fullness as an open flower. Similarly, in the psychological heart of man's being there is a blueprint of which he has already embodied some of the parts. He is different from the rest of earth's children, he can make decisions, organize and reject; when spurred by inspiration he can make things of great beauty or ingenuity -- all of which is done with the power of the soul. The whole of the pattern has not yet been unfolded; if we may believe the encouraging words of wise men who have preceded us, we are to keep growing until the qualities of the
entheos manifest in relative fullness.
Can the parts be different from the whole? Can we have qualities that are not to be found in our parentage in the consciousness of Space? Deep run the roots of man's being, indeed of
all beings, through the layers of substance into the immensities of the infinitude. Because we have a common source, are sustained by a common supply of life force, are blended of similar ingredients, we recognize that there are bonds linking together every spark in the vastness. Brotherhood is a fact in nature and not a mere sentiment.
It is encouraging that scientists like Rene Dubos and the late Erwin Schrodinger turn to philosophical concepts to flesh out the dry bones of the data they accumulate in their researches. When Origen exhorted man: "Thou art a second world in miniature, the sun and moon are within thee, and also the stars," he meant we are all compounded of the same stuff. But he was likewise a link in the chain of Neoplatonists at the great center in Alexandria. And their ancient teaching was that the personal part of man came from a previous manifestation of earth's being, that which is now the moon. The spiritual side of man was regarded as of solar origin and the divine spark it carried in its center was thought to have a starry parentage.
Our individuality has been inherent in us from the very beginning of existence on earth. When our self-consciousness was awakened, bringing with it awareness of space, time and continuity, and of consciousness per se, we were able to communicate with each other. We shared the common aspects of our experience, but we could not impart the shades of meaning felt in our deepest recesses and beyond the powers of the reasoning faculty to define.
The sudden illuminations, the spontaneous ideas and achievements of creative artists and scientists, of social reformers, even of our own daily selves, originate in the still, quiet nucleus of our inmost self.
Man's physical transformations of his habitat have beautified and also made ugly the handiwork of nature. They have frequently drawn into actuality what was hidden in the wilderness as potentiality, in the same way as Michelangelo evoked out of the marble the hidden beauty his eyes saw there. Just imagine what it would be like if man equally transmuted his selfish, material traits into their noblest potentials.
Peace.
-R
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