In September of 2002, I went to Guyla, Hungary, on the Hungarian/Romanian border. I flew into Budapest and drove to Guyla. It was only about a 100 miles, but took three hours because they have no interstates, just farm to market roads. Hungary is at a latitude similar to Kansas, and is one of the bread basket countries in Europe. Although 
many of the fields had already been harvested, we saw acres of corn, wheat, and sunflowers in the fields along the roads. In fact, the part of Hungary I was in was very flat and looked a lot like the Lubbock area of Texas. The only trees were along creeks or along the fence rows to cut down on erosion from the wind. If I had not suffered through a 14 hour plane ride, I would have expected to hear a West Texas drawl come from the first person I spoke to. Actually, though, everyone spoke Hungarian and German, but very few people spoke English, so I got by with a few words of German and a lot of sign language.
Every where I went, people had small garden plots. The food distribution system over there is not nearly as efficient as our’s, so for most of the year these people are dependent on their gardens for the vegetables they eat. In fact, since I was there at the end of their harvest season, the only vegetables I saw were tomatoes, cucumbers, and a type of white bell pepper. No other vegetables were available at that time of the year. The first thing I did when I got home was have a big salad!
In addition the the garden plots, each house was covered in flowers. Even the apartment dwellers had flower boxes that contained pansies and other pretty flowers. Each restaurant had flowers on every table, and the public spaces were very well landscaped. It is apparent that growing things is important to people in this region for more reasons than just wanting something to eat.
