Samuel & Daniela Mejia, Community Farmers, Imperial Beach Community Garden, Imperial Beach

“When I was a kid, we used to garden all the time. We used to grow tomatoes and all kinds of stuff, like chayotes. We had tons of fruit trees. Everywhere we went, even if it was a little apartment, we’d have pots and herbs and something growing there – even if it was ferns or something. I would always be there trimming. My mom would say that I would give the plants haircuts. That’s why I wanted to do it, because I wanted to do different styles like Edward Scissorhands, that was the best movie. That’s when I really got into it, when I was trimming at the plants. Pretty fun.”

“I really want my daughter to understand the joy of growing your own food and the health benefit of it, and knowing that something sweet can come from a vine just as much as it can come from a store. And knowing that she’ll always have something to fall back on if she needs to, like in case of a global depression or no resources.”

“Even making preserves and being able to keep what she has for as long as she can. That, to me, is really important…that she can grow up learning to farm and then teach it to her children. It’s very important for us to keep teaching what we don’t teach anymore, which is the basics of gardening and keeping ourselves alive during the winter and not having to rely on anything else like store bought pizza sauce.”