Southern Agrarianism and the culture of the Old South

Tomato With Your Oil Change?

IMG_3879
I’ve been taking my vehicles to Classic Lube in DeLand since the early 1990’s. When you find a place you like, you stick with it. Last week, after finishing our oil change, the guys asked if we would like to see their garden. Of course, we said, “Yes”.

They took us back behind the building to an area where a utility pipe comes up and where there used to be some of the usual landscape plants that most businesses have. There, instead of the usual sterile and unproductive living decorations, we saw a garden planted with tomatoes, radishes, onions, basil, lettuce, cilantro, and probably others that I can’t recall at the moment. The dirt that was originally there was replaced with some good top soil. They tend the garden during the normal down time that any business has during the day – and they have fresh vegetables for their lunch

Wouldn’t it be great if other businesses followed the lead of Classic Lube and helped make their communities just a bit more resilient and self-contained?

In addition to the photos, we left with a fresh radish.

IMG_3878

IMG_3881

IMG_3882

4 Comments

  1. Jake

    Good for them. This is the way for everyone to live a little bit better.

  2. Stephen Clay McGehee

    Thanks for stopping by, Jake. I’ve enjoyed looking through your Rural Reversion blog and added it to my links here. You’re taken a path that many only dream about.

  3. Hickory and Iron

    Very good to see. I love to see places start to become more self sufficient.

    • Stephen Clay McGehee

      Thank you for stopping by and commenting. I looked through the photos on your site – you’ve got a beautiful place there!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

17 + eighteen =