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The 2021 Vegetable of the Year: "the wise vegetable of the pandemic"

Emma Ambrosi

This is the seed that grows a family and builds a home just the right size to keep the whole clan safe and sound.

In keeping with tradition, the Duluth Community Garden Program announces the One Vegetable, One Community Vegetable of the Year on New Year's Day here on Northland Morning.

Once again we celebrate with not only the announcement, but an original poem by Duluth's Poet Laureate, Gary Boelhower.

Facebook, Instagram or on their websitefor more information about public events, recipe swaps, seed giveaways and more.

Vegetable of the Year 2021

by Gary Boelhower

I plant the seeds in early Spring

when the soil is still cold to the touch

and nights still shiver with frost

when the sun is just beginning to whisper 

its promises of summer green gardens.

This is the seed that grows a family

and builds a home just the right size

to keep the whole clan safe and sound.

This is the wise vegetable of the pandemic

teaching about safety and spread, distance and togetherness.

This is the vegetable that creates worlds

sweet planets, galaxies of heavenly orbs

with names like Tom Thumb and Half Pint

Green Arrow and Tall Telephone

Mr. Big and Little Marvel.

Bush and climbing with blossoms

of white, pink, purple.

Snow, snap, sugar.

Make your porridge hot or make your porridge cold.

Make this soup in your biggest pot.

Split or whole is sure to please

as you eat the ancient, common, nutritious peas.

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.
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