Heirloom (Encore)

Speaker 1 Get more, nothing much happens, with bonus episodes, extra-long stories, and ad-free listening, all while supporting the show you love. Subscribe now.

Speaker 2 John Legend, Cheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, and Alanis Morrison star in the MGM Plus original series, Words and Music. Iconic artists share intimate performances and the stories behind the songs.

Speaker 2 Series premiere on November 30th, only on MGM Plus.

Speaker 3 The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft.

Speaker 3 But Life Lock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our U.S.-based restoration specialists will fix it guaranteed or your money back.

Speaker 3 Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans, or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with Life Lock.
Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com/slash podcast.

Speaker 3 Terms apply.

Speaker 1 Welcome to bedtime stories for everyone

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 nothing much happens.

Speaker 1 You feel good

Speaker 1 and then

Speaker 1 you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read

Speaker 1 all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittercheim.

Speaker 1 We are bringing you an encore episode tonight, meaning that this story originally aired at some point in the past. It could have been recorded with different equipment in a different location.

Speaker 1 And since I'm a person and not a computer, I sometimes sound just slightly different.

Speaker 1 But the stories are always soothing and family-friendly, and our wishes for you are always deep rest and sweet dreams.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 since every story is someone's first,

Speaker 1 I'd like to say a little about how this works.

Speaker 1 A busy brain will keep you up.

Speaker 1 I'm sure you know the feeling.

Speaker 1 But not having anything for your brain to focus on can actually make it spiral faster.

Speaker 1 So I have a story that is simple and full of good feeling and cozy details.

Speaker 1 You rest your mind on it just by listening.

Speaker 1 And before you know it,

Speaker 1 you'll be out like a light.

Speaker 1 I'll I'll tell the story twice,

Speaker 1 and I'll go a little slower the second time through.

Speaker 1 If you wake later in the night, you can just start the story over again,

Speaker 1 or think back through any part of it that you can remember.

Speaker 1 This is brain training, and the effects will improve with use.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called Heirloom.

Speaker 1 And it's a story about a garden in the middle of the summer.

Speaker 1 It's also about things handed down through generations,

Speaker 1 making and keeping friends of all ages,

Speaker 1 and a stack of farmers' almanacs in the quiet corner of a shed.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 get as comfortable as you can.

Speaker 1 Snuggle deep into your sheets

Speaker 1 and let your whole body relax.

Speaker 1 Whatever you got done today,

Speaker 1 it was enough.

Speaker 1 Now nothing remains but rest.

Speaker 1 Breathe in through your nose.

Speaker 1 And sigh through your mouth.

Speaker 1 One more all the way in

Speaker 1 and out.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Heirloom.

Speaker 1 This was our fourth summer at the allotment

Speaker 1 in our little patch at the community garden,

Speaker 1 where we had learned to make things grow.

Speaker 1 In fact, we now had twice the space we'd started with.

Speaker 1 The family that gardened in the plot next to ours had gotten too busy as their sons grew to keep up with growing plants as well.

Speaker 1 and we'd taken over their beds.

Speaker 1 A couple of times each summer, though,

Speaker 1 they'd all come by and lend a hand with planting or weeding or harvesting.

Speaker 1 And we'd have a picnic together under the trees, like old times.

Speaker 1 The boys would sit with us and catch us up on life in their world.

Speaker 1 Middle school and piano lessons and soccer camp.

Speaker 1 Something I have come to value as I've gotten older

Speaker 1 was having more people in my life who are younger than me and who are older than me.

Speaker 1 hearing their stories

Speaker 1 telling them mine

Speaker 1 watching them move through landmark years well

Speaker 1 i need it

Speaker 1 not just for the context it gave me

Speaker 1 in my own experience but

Speaker 1 Because I suspect we all need

Speaker 1 that sort of fullness of family,

Speaker 1 the different textures in our fellows to appreciate and wonder at

Speaker 1 and attempt to love

Speaker 1 now that I thought of it the allotment was a sort of

Speaker 1 extended family

Speaker 1 children and adults and older folks

Speaker 1 a common goal,

Speaker 1 shared wisdom, an effort,

Speaker 1 and some rain and some sun.

Speaker 1 This year there had been more sun than rain

Speaker 1 and that might seem like a good thing

Speaker 1 if you are

Speaker 1 say planning a trip to the beach

Speaker 1 but when you are trying to grow potatoes which we still were, after several somewhat unsuccessful seasons,

Speaker 1 it can make each dry day worrisome.

Speaker 1 I'd complained to another farmer about our spuds, thirsty and finicky in the arid dirt.

Speaker 1 She'd patted me kindly on the back and sympathy and reminded me that the domestication of the potato had taken around 8,000 years.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 if it took me more than a few summers to sort them out,

Speaker 1 well,

Speaker 1 that tracked.

Speaker 1 We did water. as much as we could.

Speaker 1 The allotment had a rain collection system,

Speaker 1 and each plot got a bit of what was left for as long as it lasted.

Speaker 1 And we mulched

Speaker 1 and planted lots of local plants to shade the soil.

Speaker 1 But mostly we crossed our fingers and hoped for rain.

Speaker 1 The forecast for to day was promising.

Speaker 1 And when I woke and stepped outside,

Speaker 1 I could smell it off in the distance.

Speaker 1 The sky had been cloudy and slightly gray all day.

Speaker 1 And while the heat hadn't broken yet,

Speaker 1 I could just tell that it wanted to.

Speaker 1 I'd said as much to another gardener when I'd gotten to the plot,

Speaker 1 and added that

Speaker 1 it might just be wishful thinking.

Speaker 1 He'd said wishful thinking was a key ingredient for gardening,

Speaker 1 that none of us would be here without it.

Speaker 1 So I took my optimism and tromped over to our garden.

Speaker 1 I started with my usual survey,

Speaker 1 walking through the rows

Speaker 1 and pulling weeds,

Speaker 1 noting what was ripening,

Speaker 1 what was close to going to seed.

Speaker 1 This year I had planted a few heirloom varieties of our favorite vegetables.

Speaker 1 Look, sometimes there are good reasons as to why plants are different now

Speaker 1 from how they were for our distant relatives.

Speaker 1 Those potatoes, for example,

Speaker 1 had been bitter

Speaker 1 and nearly inedible

Speaker 1 for most of those thousands of years.

Speaker 1 In fact,

Speaker 1 every time I had a plate of french fries

Speaker 1 or a big baked potato for dinner,

Speaker 1 I paused to thank those cultivators of yore

Speaker 1 for their persistence.

Speaker 1 After so many generations of work on the plant,

Speaker 1 they must have at least considered throwing in the towel.

Speaker 1 And I was glad they hadn't.

Speaker 1 Other times, though,

Speaker 1 plants were bred for how they looked rather than how they tasted.

Speaker 1 And the flavors that had been savored and loved by our ancestors

Speaker 1 were lost in the modern iterations.

Speaker 1 And the idea that

Speaker 1 I could taste something

Speaker 1 that had been missing for generations drove me to plant

Speaker 1 as many heirlooms as I could this summer.

Speaker 1 Another reason to plant heirloom vegetables

Speaker 1 is that

Speaker 1 Without exception, they have fantastic names.

Speaker 1 And I said them aloud as I walked through the garden.

Speaker 1 Black valentine beans

Speaker 1 still thriving on the bush.

Speaker 1 The green tops of the scarlet Nance carrots were still a bit sparse.

Speaker 1 And I hoped we'd be able to pick some in a few more weeks.

Speaker 1 I'd gone a little overboard with the lettuces,

Speaker 1 which we'd planted in two-week shifts to be able to harvest continually.

Speaker 1 We had May Queen

Speaker 1 and Little Gem

Speaker 1 and Paris white coes

Speaker 1 and black-seeded Simpson to choose from

Speaker 1 green arrow peas,

Speaker 1 bullnose peppers,

Speaker 1 Easter basket radishes,

Speaker 1 Vero Flay spinach,

Speaker 1 and three different vines of watermelon called Moon and Stars,

Speaker 1 Blacktail Mountain,

Speaker 1 and Cream of Saskatchewan.

Speaker 1 I checked their leaves, plucking away any dead bits and patting them firmly on their rinds.

Speaker 1 I figured they liked to know someone was there watching over them.

Speaker 1 I'd heard that fiddle figs that live indoors

Speaker 1 sometimes grow trunks

Speaker 1 too skinny and insubstantial

Speaker 1 because they aren't out in the wind,

Speaker 1 which stimulates them to grow.

Speaker 1 So you should give your fig a good shake now and then.

Speaker 1 I hoped that padding watermelon rinds would work the same way.

Speaker 1 Just as I was beginning to fret

Speaker 1 about the dry, cracked soil under my feet,

Speaker 1 I felt a sudden, cooler breeze cutting through the garden.

Speaker 1 I'd been lost in thought

Speaker 1 and hadn't noticed the dark clouds rolling in.

Speaker 1 I realized that rain was just moments away.

Speaker 1 We had a shared shed at the edge of the lots

Speaker 1 with chairs under an awning, and a coffee pot,

Speaker 1 and old copies of the farmer's almanac going back for decades.

Speaker 1 And I knew it would be the perfect spot to watch the rain soak into our plants.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 before I took off for it in my garden clogs,

Speaker 1 I just breathed in the smell of the water in the air

Speaker 1 and let the first few drops fall on my bare arms and face.

Speaker 1 I thought of how green and healthy

Speaker 1 everything would be tomorrow.

Speaker 1 How the vegetables would look like they'd all finally gotten a good night's sleep.

Speaker 1 And I sighed,

Speaker 1 as I imagine gardeners have

Speaker 1 for millennia

Speaker 1 as the rain came down.

Speaker 1 Heirloom.

Speaker 1 This was our fourth summer

Speaker 1 at the allotment

Speaker 1 in our little patch

Speaker 1 at the community garden

Speaker 1 where we had learned how to make things grow

Speaker 1 in fact

Speaker 1 we now had twice the space we'd started with

Speaker 1 The family that gardened in the plot next to ours

Speaker 1 had gotten too busy as their sons grew

Speaker 1 to keep up with growing plants as well.

Speaker 1 And we'd taken over their beds.

Speaker 1 A couple of times each summer though,

Speaker 1 they'd all come by and lend a hand with planting

Speaker 1 or weeding or harvesting.

Speaker 1 and we'd have a picnic together under the trees, like old times.

Speaker 1 The boys would sit with us

Speaker 1 and catch us up on life in their world,

Speaker 1 middle school, and piano lessons,

Speaker 1 and soccer camp.

Speaker 1 Something I have come to value as I've gotten older

Speaker 1 is having more people in my life

Speaker 1 who are younger than me

Speaker 1 and more who are older than me.

Speaker 1 Hearing their stories,

Speaker 1 telling them mine,

Speaker 1 watching them move through

Speaker 1 landmark years.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 I need it

Speaker 1 not just for the context it gave me in my own experience,

Speaker 1 but because I suspect

Speaker 1 we all need that sort of

Speaker 1 fullness of family,

Speaker 1 Different textures in our fellows to appreciate

Speaker 1 and wonder at

Speaker 1 and attempt to love.

Speaker 1 Now that I thought of it,

Speaker 1 the allotment

Speaker 1 was

Speaker 1 a sort of extended family.

Speaker 1 Children and adults and older folks,

Speaker 1 a common goal,

Speaker 1 shared wisdom,

Speaker 1 an effort,

Speaker 1 some rain and some sun.

Speaker 1 This year there had been

Speaker 1 more sun than rain.

Speaker 1 And that might seem like a good thing

Speaker 1 if you are, say,

Speaker 1 planning a trip to the beach.

Speaker 1 But when you are trying to grow potatoes,

Speaker 1 which we still were

Speaker 1 after several somewhat unsuccessful seasons,

Speaker 1 it can make each dry day worrisome.

Speaker 1 I'd complained to another farmer about our spuds,

Speaker 1 thirsty and finicky

Speaker 1 in the arid dirt.

Speaker 1 She'd patted me kindly on the back in sympathy and reminded me that

Speaker 1 the domestication of the potato had taken

Speaker 1 around 8,000 years.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 if it took me more than a few summers to sort them out,

Speaker 1 well

Speaker 1 that tracked.

Speaker 1 We did water as much as we could.

Speaker 1 The allotment had a rain collection system

Speaker 1 and each plot got a bit of what was left

Speaker 1 for as long as it lasted

Speaker 1 and we mulched

Speaker 1 and planted lots of local plants to shade the soil

Speaker 1 but mostly we crossed our fingers

Speaker 1 and hoped for rain

Speaker 1 The forecast for today

Speaker 1 was promising

Speaker 1 And when I woke and stepped outside,

Speaker 1 I could smell it

Speaker 1 off in the distance.

Speaker 1 The sky had been cloudy and slightly gray all day.

Speaker 1 And while the heat hadn't broken yet,

Speaker 1 I could just tell that it wanted to.

Speaker 1 I'd said as much to another gardener when I'd gotten to the plot

Speaker 1 and added that it might just be wishful thinking.

Speaker 1 He'd said wishful thinking was a key ingredient for gardening,

Speaker 1 that none of us would be here without it.

Speaker 1 So I took my optimism

Speaker 1 and tromped over to our plot.

Speaker 1 I started with my usual survey,

Speaker 1 walking through the rows

Speaker 1 and pulling weeds,

Speaker 1 noting what was ripening,

Speaker 1 what was close to going to seed.

Speaker 1 This year, I had planted a few heirloom varieties of our favorite vegetable.

Speaker 1 Sometimes there are good reasons as to why

Speaker 1 plants today

Speaker 1 are different from how they were for our distant relatives.

Speaker 1 Those potatoes, for example, had been bitter

Speaker 1 and nearly inedible

Speaker 1 for most of those thousands of years.

Speaker 1 In fact,

Speaker 1 every time I had a plate of french fries

Speaker 1 or a big baked potato for dinner,

Speaker 1 I paused to thank those

Speaker 1 cultivators of yore for their persistence.

Speaker 1 After so many generations of work on the plant,

Speaker 1 they must have at least considered throwing in the towel

Speaker 1 and I was grateful that they hadn't.

Speaker 1 Other times, though, plants had been bred

Speaker 1 for how they looked

Speaker 1 rather than how they tasted.

Speaker 1 And the flavors that had been savored

Speaker 1 and loved by our ancestors

Speaker 1 were lost in the modern iterations.

Speaker 1 And the idea that

Speaker 1 I could taste something

Speaker 1 that had been missing for generations,

Speaker 1 it drove me to plant as many heirlooms as I could this summer.

Speaker 1 Another reason to plant heirloom vegetables

Speaker 1 is that,

Speaker 1 without exception,

Speaker 1 they have fantastic names.

Speaker 1 And I said them aloud

Speaker 1 as I walked through the garden.

Speaker 1 Black Valentine beans

Speaker 1 still thriving on the bush.

Speaker 1 The green tops of the scarlet Nance carrots

Speaker 1 were still a bit sparse.

Speaker 1 and I hoped we'd be able to pick some in a few more weeks.

Speaker 1 I'd gone a little overboard with the lettuces,

Speaker 1 which we planted in two-week shifts

Speaker 1 to be able to harvest continually.

Speaker 1 We had May Queen

Speaker 1 and Little Gem

Speaker 1 and Paris White Coes

Speaker 1 and Black Seeded Simpson to choose from

Speaker 1 Green Arrow Peas,

Speaker 1 Bullnose Peppers,

Speaker 1 Easter basket radishes,

Speaker 1 Vero Flay spinach,

Speaker 1 and three different vines of watermelon

Speaker 1 called Moon and Stars,

Speaker 1 Blacktail Mountain,

Speaker 1 and Cream of Saskatchewan.

Speaker 1 I checked their leaves, plucking away any dead bits

Speaker 1 and patting them firmly on their rinds.

Speaker 1 I figured

Speaker 1 they liked to know

Speaker 1 someone was there watching over them.

Speaker 1 I'd heard that fiddle figs that live indoors

Speaker 1 sometimes grow trunks that are too skinny and insubstantial

Speaker 1 because they aren't out in the wind,

Speaker 1 which

Speaker 1 stimulates them to grow.

Speaker 1 So you should give your fig

Speaker 1 a good shake now and then.

Speaker 1 I hoped that patting my watermelon rinds would work the same.

Speaker 1 Just as I was beginning to fret

Speaker 1 about the dry, cracked soil under my feet,

Speaker 1 I felt a sudden, cooler breeze cutting through the garden.

Speaker 1 I'd been lost in thought

Speaker 1 and hadn't noticed the dark clouds rolling in.

Speaker 1 I realized that rain

Speaker 1 was moments away.

Speaker 1 We had a shared shed

Speaker 1 at the edge of the lots

Speaker 1 with chairs under an awning

Speaker 1 and a coffee pot

Speaker 1 and old copies of the farmer's almanac

Speaker 1 going back for decades.

Speaker 1 and I knew it would be the perfect spot

Speaker 1 to watch the rain soak into our plants.

Speaker 1 But before I took off for it in my garden clogs,

Speaker 1 I just breathed in the smell of the water in the air

Speaker 1 and let drops fall

Speaker 1 on my bare arms and face.

Speaker 1 I thought of

Speaker 1 how green and healthy

Speaker 1 everything would be to morrow.

Speaker 1 How the vegetables would look like

Speaker 1 they'd all finally gotten a good night's sleep.

Speaker 1 and I sighed

Speaker 1 as I imagine

Speaker 1 gardeners have

Speaker 1 for millennia

Speaker 1 as the rain came down.

Speaker 1 Sweet dreams.