I grow a little of everything, but focus on peppers. I have 150 varieties, and nearly 500 plants growing in my Pacific Northwest home garden. I make hot sauce with the peppers for our local food pantry. Two days ago, my neighbors brought a reporter from a large statewide news organization into my garden for a tour. I didn’t realize she was a reporter until half way through. I was shocked, and a little befuddled. She wants to write an article about my garden as an inspirational story. She said it’s my choice, and I would get to edit it before publishing. I’m not seeking attention, nor do I see any benefit from going ahead with it. What would you do?
by Ms-Audacity
17 Comments
If you’re not comfortable with it, it doesn’t hurt to say no! Especially because you weren’t aware they were a reporter in the first place, you’re under no obligation to say yes. If you think it would be fun to share your story on your plants and how you got into making your sauces, go right ahead with it it might be a fun and cool experience! But again, if you don’t, you have no obligation to say yes [=
I wouldn’t look at it as attention, you have a talent for growing things. I’m inspired just from the photos. Don’t really see any negatives unless you are just a private person, which I respect
If you want to let her publish the inspirational story but you don’t want to be personally credited, then just ask her to keep you anonymous in the article and to not use pictures that readily identify your property.
I have a healthy mistrust of reporters/journalists, even for innocuous local interest stories, especially ones that didn’t get your expressed consent before coming out to do the story on you and your garden.
Also bear in mind this will attract a lot of attention to you and your garden, some of it may be unwelcome.
I totally understand the desire for privacy, I would be on the fence about putting my name in print but maybe it could bring some positive attention to your food pantry/donations if you spin it that way.
I can’t imagine anything negative coming out from this. People don’t sit around looking for micro-farms through news they can target. It may feel overwhelming to you, but to others you would either be one of thousands of stories that passes them, or it might be an interesting few minutes.
There’s even a YouTube channel visiting various farmers, brewers, mushroom growers and so on, interesting stories, but not something that turns their life upside down just because they had them there.
https://youtube.com/c/PARAGRAPHIC
I’m a private person too but this is a way to be remembered after you are gone (sorry my mind is dark). But I understand the major hesitation
If you choose to go ahead with it, maybe find an angle that you feel comfortable highlighting. Like, contributing to the food bank, slowing down the pace of life to grow, pollenators, etc. You could try to use the opportunity to spotlight things that are important to you so the focus isn’t on you personally.
You have the choice to edit it, I am a private home person mostly but the fact you make hot sauce for your local food pantry is admirable for sure! You can inspire people to help/give back to communities and people in need without compromising your privacy. I say go for it!
I think it’s pretty inspirational. You have an amazing garden and are using it to benefit others. That is something I could see providing others with the motivation to do more themselves.
Would you have the option of remaining anonymous in the article?
Awesome garden! 💜
I would say no because they were brought into my private space without prior ok. And I would make it clear to those neighbors that wasn’t cool.
You can share an article of your own writing and pics to whatever publications you’d like. Or not. Attention on homemade items could cause issue to that being able to continue. A simple ‘support your local food pantry by donating extra produce and money’ would be better. And coming from you directly would have the best impact imo.
As both a reporter and a pepper gardener, I’ll start by saying it’s kind of insane to me for a reporter to come to your garden without immediately identifying themselves and saying their intention. If you were running a business of it, that would be more normal, but at a private residence that strikes me as highly inappropriate.
Ethics rant aside, the ball is in your court. The reporter might think you’re a jerk for declining, but that’s about the worst that could happen.
Should you decide to go through with it, you can try to push the story in a particular direction. As a reporter myself, I try to make my human interest type stories highly personal, so I’d be asking questions about how you got into pepper gardening, your favorite kind of pepper, what gave you the idea to donate hot sauce to the pantry, and applicable follow up questions.
When dealing with a more private minded individual, I’ll switch gears to the technical aspects of what they’re doing, information about the pantry and how to donate, details about the process of making hot sauce, or tips for other people who want to try growing peppers or other vegetables at home for either personal use or to donate.
I think it’s a great story idea. I’ve done stories about community gardens and personal bonsai collections and things like that and people tend to find them interesting. With bonsai and orchid collectors, I’ve had to keep them anonymous because those plants are super valuable and relatively easy to steal. I think it’s reasonable to ask to remain anonymous.
Sounds like an article is outside your comfort zone but I’m going to urge you to reconsider. This is the reason why. Your garden is epic and I can only imagine a well written article might inspire folks to take similar actions. Your hobby is providing home grown food to locals in need that might not be able to enjoy those things if it weren’t for you. Imagine a world where even a few more people were doing the same thing for folks in need. Healthy home grown food is a privilege that not everyone gets. Making that more accessible for those people is objectively good. Even if you inspire only one other person to do the same that’s still a good thing. Wanting privacy isn’t a bad thing and totally understandable. I’m just saying that maybe some of that love will be contagious. Whatever you choose to do I just want to say thank you for your kindness!!
You could ask them to keep you anonymous and not publish your name or location info if you don’t want the attention. Seems like a cool story to share though.
I would be cautious and say no. Who knows what problems can stem from this. There could be hot sauce laws , mass producing laws or any number of other laws that could be referenced.
Say thanks but no thanks
Get their circulation numbers and then contact the PR department of any brands that you love. They’ll be happy to provide free products and direct the focus of the article their way
I would just have them use my reddit r/