Nurtured by Nature: Remembering a Back-to-the-Land Childhood
A young social worker reflects on her back-to-the-land childhood and how it has shaped her worldview.
December 2008/January 2009
By Liz Stuart
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The house was started in 1975 by three people without prior building experience.
LAUREL WATER
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My usual response when asked where I grew up is “You’ve probably never heard of it.” Newport, Wash., population 2,000, is in the mountains of eastern Washington, about 70 miles from the Canadian border. Fifteen miles west of Newport and two miles off the pavement, the homestead where I was raised is even further off the map.
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My older brother Tighe and I grew up in a continually evolving log house that was started in 1975 by three college friends: John Stuart and Carol Mack (my parents) and Cheryl Long (now editor in chief of Mother Earth News). The house is on 40 acres of wild land where my parents choose to live a sustainable and low-impact existence. For our family, this lifestyle meant extensive gardening, using an outhouse and constant exploration of the outdoors.
Now I’m a resident of Portland, Ore., with a degree in social work, and I’m thankful my first 18 years were spent in the country developing a keen awareness of my natural surroundings and learning to value a self-sufficient lifestyle.
Homegrown Harvests
One of the greatest advantages of growing up in our rural setting was eating homegrown organic produce. The crops from our half-acre garden were supplemented with some items from town, but fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs were the norm each summer. Until I left home, I did not realize what a luxury it was to simply walk into the garden to harvest dinner or the occasional snack. My parents claim the strawberry yield increased dramatically after I left for college.
Even in winter, we ate homegrown fruit and veggies. Carrots and potatoes were packed in sand and stored, along with bags of apples, in underground barrels insulated with dried leaves. Squash was a staple all winter long, as were garlic and dried Indian corn, which we ground into purple cornmeal. We blanched and froze green beans, Swiss chard, corn, broccoli and cauliflower. We canned salsa and dilly beans and froze blueberries, raspberries and wild huckleberries to be served on pancakes and waffles throughout the winter.
Every fall when the first frost threatened, usually in mid-October, Mom and Dad would watch the thermometer at night. If it looked like the temperature would drop below freezing, we would all troop out into the garden in the dead of night, bundled up in hats and sweaters, to bring in the last of the harvest before the frost. The potatoes and carrots were protected underground, but we needed to pick the last of the apples, pumpkins, squash and tomatoes. Plus, we’d harvest basil and other crops that had been left to ripen as long as they could.
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