Introducing the July box theme: Garden Sparkles
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Growing up, my grandma had a vegetable garden.
It was her retirement project, something she started once she finally had the time for it, and she built it slowly, season after season, with her own hands.
Every summer, I got to be her helper. When something was ready, she'd take me out with her and show me what to look for.
I remember being surprised that cucumbers can be prickly, nothing like the smooth ones I found at the store.
The eggplants came in all kinds of shapes, some almost round like a tennis ball, nothing like the neat, uniform ones lined up at the grocery store. Grocery store vegetables are bred to look perfect. Hers never did, and they tasted better for it.
The tomatoes were the best part. We'd pick one straight off the vine and it would go right into our mouths before it even made it to the basket. I had no idea a tomato could taste that sweet.... it was like candy.
I carried the basket. She did most of the picking, then handed things to me one at a time until my arms were full. It's one of my fondest memories from that time, and I don't think I understood back then how much patience a project like that takes.
You don't just plant something and wait.
You water it, pull the weeds, keep an eye out so the bugs don't get to the vegetables before you do. There's a lot of work that goes into it before you ever get to pick anything. Then one day, there's more than you can carry.
"Some gardens grow vegetables. This one grows something closer to wonder. Both, I think, ask for the same kind of patience."
I thought about my grandma's garden when I was putting this box together.
Paper Bento is a project similar to my grandma's, just one I started a bit earlier than she started hers. Something I plant and tend a little more each month, hoping it grows into something worth handing to someone else, one box at a time.
That's part of where July's theme came from. We're calling it Garden Sparkles: a whimsical garden filled with golden details.
Not the kind of garden you grow vegetables in. The kind that exists more in feeling than in fact, built out of small, bright things that catch the light when you're not expecting it. The kind where every corner has something worth noticing, if you slow down enough to look for it.
I'm not ready to show you what's inside yet. That's coming in the next newsletter. For now, I just wanted to share where this one came from, and the feeling I'm hoping it carries when it lands on your doorstep.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading.
I hope this one gives you a little of that same golden, slow-down feeling this summer.
What's your summer core memory? It doesn't have to be a big one. Sometimes it's as small as a single bite of something still warm from the sun.
Paper Bento