"The world is alive with your goodness, O God, it grows green from the ground and ripens into the roundness of fruit. Its taste and its touch enliven my body and stir my soul. Generously given, profusely displayed, your graces of goodness pour forth from the earth. As I have received so free me to give. As I have been granted so may I give." ~J. Philip Newell

Entering the Agriculture and Horticulture building at the State Fair the other day, I overheard a woman who was a bit impatient about standing in line to see the prize winning vegetables. "I have seen vegetables before." she spoke with some derision to her Fair companion. She made this statement very near my head but I resisted the impulse to turn and glare at her. My eyes were instead fixed ahead as we approached the enormous pumpkins. I hardly knew which way to look….huge orange pumpkins, brilliant red tomatoes, lime green peppers, rich purple eggplants, perfectly dainty patapans. My head was spinning with the beauty of it all.

As we slowly made our way in procession past the ribbon winners, I thought of the woman's statement. How often we take for granted the every day gifts around us! Vegetables can be seen as simply food….but who can truly say 'simply' about food, this fuel that literally keeps us alive? And these particular vegetables were grown with such love and care, as most good plants are, that they deserve a sort of reverence, I think.

Walking past each offering, for that is what they are, I could imagine the growers watching over their garden plants, hoping that each vegetable would be 'just right' by the opening day of the Fair. Ripe enough to be completely beautiful, not too ripe so as to go bad during the twelve days they need to hold their audience. That takes some careful watching, not to be taken lightly.

Playing the scene backwards from picking to nurturing, from the perfect amount of water and sunlight, back to tilling the soil and making sure it was rich with nutrients, to planting the seeds and splitting the plants. So many steps to get to this 'simple' vegetable. Not to mention the hard work of the hands who planted and watched over them. And then there is the whole matter of the faith it takes to even do any of this at all.

Those who plant gardens, whether large or small, are people who deserve not only our thanks but our admiration. Whether their produce is grown to be prize winners or not is irrelevant. Each tomato, each pepper, each eggplant, offers itself to be food for someone. In some circles this is known as a sacrament.

If only the woman had known, we might have heard her running down Dan Patch Avenue screaming at the top of her lungs: "I've seen vegetables! I've seen vegetables!"