Garden Karma

In Native American traditions, March is sometimes called Starvation Moon. By this time of year, last summer's harvests are running low or have completely been devoured. Now, before the first green shoots and roots of spring, there is nothing to eat except the cambium layer of a few trees.

My own stores of last summer's harvest are thinning out. One pumpkin remains in the cellar. I still have about 3 dozen onions and a like number of garlic. The crisper drawer in the apartment-sized refrigerator in the basement is full of potatoes. But i only have one chili's worth of tomatillos left.

Let me sing the praises of tomatillos--green tomato-like fruits in a paper husk--that are used in in Mexican cooking. I picked them 7 months ago, and now they are ripe and ready for cooking. Not unlike the fruits of our karma that ripen sometime in the future--sometimes sooner, sometimes later.

"You reap what you sow" applies not only to the fruits of our labors, but to our thoughts and actions as well. Today, as we tend our inner and outer gardens, may we cultivate the seeds of kindness.