Tomorrow, 5 June is World Environment Day. The theme for this year is Air Pollution. According to the World Environment Day website, nine out of ten people breathe polluted air — a frightening statistic. While the most polluted cities may be far from where we live and the effect of our individual actions may seem negligible, the site recommends ways in which we can help reduce air pollution. I’m sure you already do many of these:
- Use public transport or car sharing, cycle or walk
- Switch to a hybrid or electric vehicle and request electric taxis
- Turn off the car engine when stationary
- Reduce your consumption of meat and dairy to help cut methane emissions
- Compost organic food items and recycle non-organic trash
- Switch to high-efficiency home heating systems and equipment
- Save energy: turn off lights and electronics when not in use
- Choose non-toxic paints and furnishings
While not specific to this year’s theme, I thought the flash fiction prompt set by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch this week was a perfect match for World Environment Day. Charli challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes strawberries and mint. The combination evokes color contrast, scents, and taste. Where will the combination take you? Go where the prompt leads!
Growing plants, particularly those that produce edible delicacies, including strawberries and mint, is a great way of introducing children to the importance of caring for the environment. Both strawberries and mint are easy to grow and require little space.
The rewards are not only in the eating. Children can learn where their food comes from and understand that it doesn’t just appear in plastic packaging on supermarket shelves or in the fridge at home. In caring for a garden, they learn about what plants need and the importance of caring for the soil. They learn to be patient, waiting for the plants to grow and to be ready to harvest. Understandings learned from small-scale gardening, even in a pot, can be applied to caring for the environment on a larger scale. It is never too soon, or too late, to learn.
In my response to Charli’s prompt, I have considered gardening as nourishment for the mind and spirit as well as the body. Because strawberries are a favourite with both my grandchildren who would probably eat strawberries anywhere and anytime, I settled on a story featuring a grandmother and grandchild. Any similarity to this grandmother is non-existent. I hope you enjoy it anyway.
(I included some favourite family strawberry desserts in this post.)
Grandma’s Garden
Jess blew kisses to Mum, then raced Grandma into the garden. She pulled on her boots and gloves and readied her digging fork. Emulating Grandma, she soaked up explanations of magic combinations that helped plants grow. At the strawberry patch, they filled baskets with ripe red berries. On the way inside, Grandma clipped sprigs of mint.
They dipped strawberries in chocolate and garnished them with mint.
“For Jess?”
“For Mum.
“Birfday?”
“Just —”
Jess inspected the chocolate bowl. “All gone.”
“Stawbwee?” said Jess, pointing to the remaining few.
“For Jess,” smiled Grandma.
Jess munched strawberries and Grandma chewed mint.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.
Norah Colvin 
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