With help from the Rainforest Alliance, a brave young Costa Rican tree frog is traveling around the world to make new friends and find out what humans are doing to help save her home. This is the second in a series of five weekly dispatches about her experiences.
Summer’s in high season, and Mr Frank spends every waking daylight hour in his backyard, an edible oasis bursting with blooms and birds. He’s up early blending in compost with his hand trowel. He leans back and surveys the rows of beans, broccoli and eggplant. Mr F (as the kids refer to their beloved science teacher) grimaces at the yellowing spinach – his personal challenge – but beams at his prize heirloom tomatoes. He plucks a juicy beefsteak from the vine and takes a bite.
Unlike most home gardeners, Mr F delights researching and experimenting with different heirlooms – sprouting them from seed. He’s especially proud of his discovery of the “mortgage lifter”. True to its name, these tomatoes’ sales at his local farmers’ market have trimmed his summer energy bill nicely. That’s one reason Mrs F has tolerated the gradual takeover of the garage with gardening supplies.
But since their shared Prius no longer fits in the garage, Mrs F has decided it’s time for an honest-to-goodness gardening shed. Soon a truck arrives with a massive box emblazoned “DIY Garden Shed.” But I smell something rotten and it has nothing to do with fallen fruit under the cherry trees. Before the box is off the tailgate, we’re inspecting it for the Forest Stewardship Council seal.
“You know, I thought this product was sustainably harvested, eh?” I say in my best Canadian accent. “But I can’t find that FSC seal anywhere. How else can we know that the great boreal forests aren’t being clear cut, that our water is being protected … and that the wildlife remain plentiful?”
Mr F goes into science teacher mode. “I don’t see any proof on this box,” he says. “We’re sending it back.” Mr F goes on about life without trees, caribou and trout. That’s when the driver recognizes his old teacher; he knows it’s pointless to resist. “All right, Mr F,” he says with a slow nod. “We’ll get the right kit. And then maybe we’ll be back for some of those tomatoes.”
Content on this page is provided by the Rainforest Alliance, supporter of the Vital Signs platform.
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