Returning home to Baldwinsville for her father’s funeral, Wendy Kunst Massey traveled without a story book she read daily to her child in utero. Rather than forego the bonding tradition, Massey made up a story for her unborn daughter. That one story, the sweet pea story, inspired others, which Massey has turned into a children’s book, titled “Spenders’ Vegetable Garden: From Land to Plate.”
“Spenders is my late father. He lived in the Baldwinsville area most of his life. My mother, who is Mrs. Spenders in the book, lived there her entire life,” Massey said, adding that her grandparents also lived and farmed locally. “They and my daughter, who came late to me in life, were my inspiration.”
Graduating from Baker High School in 1985, Massey became a national marketing and sales manager for a textile firm travelling internationally where she would search out markets for fresh produce at the places she visited. She then moved to the UK and studied therapeutic nutrition for disease prevention and healing. When she became pregnant, she moved back to the states.
Currently residing in Blaine, WA, Massey remembers tending, growing, picking and eating from her parents’ vegetable garden as a child. She is a descendant of the Ernest Joseph Bigliardi family of Smokey Hollow Road and the John Harold Kunst family of Phoenix. Both families owned about 200 acres of local farmland combined and leased the land to Schuler’s Potato Chips, Bird’s Eye and Patane.
“Spenders has a likeness to my father and wears a hat that my father wore for many years,” Massey said about the book’s illustrations, which were created by comic book illustrator J.P. Perez.
The book tells the tale of a skilled gardener who uses innate knowledge and the help of Mother Nature to produce a crop of healthy, vibrant vegetables. All the while, the stories of the vegetables teach children attributes such as selflessness and awareness of where their food comes from.
“[Spenders] is written as six short stories due to time constraints in everyone’s busy lives,” Massey said. “One story prefaces the next so they can be read independently and you know what has transpired previously.”
As a student of therapeutic nutrition, Massey found that children are really far removed from the food chain. Her book talks about soil and teaches children how to turn soil.
“You make compost and you add that to soil,” she said. “There’s a picture in the book, and I don’t know how many children’s books would have this, of a manure pile next to a compost bin. It explains that manure puts back nutrients into the soil, and it’s kind of a circular process here that’s all about the body. The body and your cells need nutrients. I want children to think of their bodies when they’re thinking of eating and that you need to put nutrients into your body to grow and be healthy.”
Ultimately, Massey wants children to be better connected to the food chain and to have confidence to grow healthy food for themselves.
While her book is aimed at children, everyone can take a lesson from the book’s message.
“[Spenders] educates, helps one connect with and makes one realize the importance and miracle of working the land, growing produce, even if it is simply for your immediate family,” Massey said. “If you have land or pots, consider growing your own food.”
Spenders’ Vegetable Garden hit the shelves this summer and is available for purchase at spendersgarden.com.
