I grew up on Vancouver Island, off the southwest coast of Canada and then, after moving around a bit, went to university to study Human Ecology in the northeast of the US, on the coast of Maine. That was my first experience of spending time on and around farms — helping friends, working on class projects, and visiting farms from a food systems perspective, specifically food waste and food recovery, which was my focus in my final year of university. At the time I never considered actually being the one to grow the food in the first place and although I started as a bit of a reluctant vegetable grower a couple years ago, I have been converted (possibly irreversibly) and now find it difficult to think about much of anything else! This year I’ve been especially mesmerised by the world of cut flowers, and the million ways to care for and prune a cucumber plant.