A jar full of radical(s)

Look around you. They may be old with slackening skin on their forearms or young with inky sleeves encircling broad biceps. They may be any gender, long haired and tan or pale face freckled. They may be on the chunky side or skin and bones. They may be from across the world or born and bred in San Diego.
They may be sitting next to you.

Take a look again. Is there dirt under their fingernails? Do they have tufts of greenery sprouting from canvas bags they say such things as "Grow your own?" Do they have a healthy sparkle in their eyes and perk up when one mentions kohlrabi? Or get upset at the concept of non-fruiting ornamental peach trees?

You probably never would have guessed it, but that person right there might just be a Grower.
Of vegetables.
Or fruits.
(Let us not discriminate now even though I am partial to the former.)

I am surrounded by people soaking up all the information they can about growing food.

The first week of class I was astounded at the diversity of this community college Agriculture program in the middle of downtown San Diego. The range of reasons for delving into the dirt on campus is as varied as the shapes, ages, cultures, politics. Some want to homestead, some open rooftop garden restaurants, some are anarchists, others want to farm family land in Mexico or El Cajon, start a container garden on the terrace, or be ready for Peak Oil.

There was a time when this knowledge wasn't considered part of a radical movement. When farming or gardening was what everyone knew. Was what everyone had to know and do to eat.

We learn about soil and compost and how to lay irrigation on dry sloping terraced beds. We learn about capillarity in the seed furrows and the different kinds of corn and giggle about plant sex (Carefully spread apart the flower petals in the middle of the night (say excuse me) and insert the male organ. Brush it around and then tape her up (say thank you) and go on to the next). When the instructor is late no one leaves the classroom or the farm. We cheer when he arrives because we want him to quiz us and draw seeds and birds and pipes on the chalkboard. We want him to make us turn stinking clamshell-laden compost and get dusty dirty forking and raking our beds. We ask questions and he answers even though the topic will be covered in Week 14 and it's only Week 3.

We want to know how to do it all. Now please.

But of course like a seed germinating, you can only absorb so much and grow at a certain rate. Then you put out your radicle and dig into the earth and are able to absorb even more as you grow and become stronger. Knowledge of how to live flows through your cells.

I need to trust this radical(radicle)ness.

Root.
Absorb.
Grow.