Reconnecting. (And Happy Father's Day.)

If there's one thing I appreciate most about my mother and father, it's the fact that their first priority as parents was to make sure my three sisters and I were cultured, open-minded and independent women. We were raised to always be aware of the world around us. Whether it was singing songs and playing guitar around a camp fire, or saving all of the change they could scrounge up to take us to another part of the world, they sacrificed what little they had to make sure we were exposed to the wonders of nature and life.

As Father's Day began to quickly approach, I panicked about what to get my father as a gift. I feel like mothers are so much easier to buy for and tend to gush over anything you call a gift (like poorly framed photos of her cats. Sorry, mum..). As I thought it over today, what is a better gift than continuing a family tradition. My father is one of the best cook's you'll ever come across, and he never put a meal on our table that was pre-packaged or wasn't made from scratch. He also was a brilliant biology teach for more than twenty years, so making sure we appreciated the life around was another pertinent priority in raising us. I remember at a very young age when my parent's planted a family garden behind our house; I had a radish straight from out of the ground and I will never forget how it tasted. I think it may have been one of my first real connections with nature, and with this grew my love of cooking and utilizing nature's ingredients.

As my boyfriend and I start our first garden behind our house this week, I couldn't help but think about the time when my family planted our garden and my first connection with nature. Thank you, dad, for everything you've done and everything you continue to do. I know you'll always be on my side even when we don't agree and I love you so very much. This garden and meal is for you!!

Happy Father's Day.