Terroir

You are not limited by a single season of harvest.

Have you ever heard the word "terroir?" It is a French word pronounced: ter-ˈwär, and is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “the environmental factors that give wine grapes their unique characteristics.”

Image is a sweet-scented Hellebore flower: it has three yellow blossoms in various stages of bloom coming from a single yellow-green stem. The dainty flower is thriving, despite growing out of a crack in the asphalt on the side of a road.

I recently heard it for the first time in a webinar I attended. The speaker referenced how soil and other environmental factors might also give non-grape farmers special insight by understanding the 'terroir' of their farms specific to their crops (I work in the tree-fruit industry.)

As I listened, I imagined the use of terroir in describing the environmental factors that affect humans, especially during our early years. How and where we grow up, what we experience, and who influences us—these all a combination of factors that give each of us our own distinct character. Our unique flavor.

• You may have grown up in rocky soil. The stones hit hard, and you had no soft place to land.

• Or, you may have grown up in a dry climate, thirsting for words of affirmation and love.

• Maybe you had softer soil and water, but lacked important nutrients needed for well-rounded growth. Your flavor was limited to fit within an expected mold—whether culture, gender, lifestyle, or religion.

Whatever the terroir of your experience, it’s created exactly who you were, who you are, and who you will be.

Here is the thing: it doesn't have to be a curse.

Unlike fragile grapes, humans have infinite diversity in their flavors. You get to keep growing and learning, no matter your age, and seek out the missing nutrients. You can still nurture your younger self, even as you move into the later stages of your life.

You can take the negative and make it something better.

YOU, my flavorful friend, YOU are not limited by a single season of harvest.