Rose and Carrot

A set of resources for investigating a range of concepts related to gardening and growing, food production and consumption.

Rose and Carrot is a ‘Reader’s Theatre’ stimulus with roles for three participants to perform. The narrative features an imaginary conversation between a Rose and a Carrot which takes place against a backdrop of a gardener looking to the future and considering what is valuable in gardens and gardening.

Several concepts are raised directly in the piece: beauty, usefulness, favourite, charm, need, taste, nurture, work and identity. Many other interesting concepts, such as production, sustainability and competition are waiting in the wings.

Activity 1

I sometimes introduce some of the ideas through a ‘Would you rather’ exercise as a starter. For example, ‘Would you rather pick up: a spider, a snail, a slug or a mouse’. Pictures of each of these are easy to find if you want to make this activity more graphic. Print and position them if you want participants to move around to indicate their preference. Also good and easy to display is, ‘Would you rather work in: a vegetable plot, a flower garden, a greenhouse or a pond?’ Both exercises are good for expressing and listening to reasons, and for exploring assumptions behind the choices made.

Activity 2

An alternative is to use an ‘ometer’ like the ‘home grown-ometer’ downloadable below. For this, pairs or small groups are asked to think of some examples of home grown foods or self picked foods that people might eat and also some shop bought foods. They are then asked to jot down some good and some bad things about each. It’s profitable to spend a time sharing and discussing these, especially the controversial reasons.

Perform the reading

Prepare for the reading by describing the 3 speaking parts and inviting volunteers to perform. You will no doubt be over subscribed. After the reading it is useful to let small groups see the script and discuss what they think is important or philosophically promising before going on to generate questions as dialogue starters.

Review and evaluation

After the dialogue it is good to return to the script and ask participants to consider whether they think the carrot or rose is more valuable. Perhaps use pictures or the words ‘rose’ and ‘carrot’ to form a line and have participants stand at the most valuable position. Alternatively, have small groups suggest ideas for how to use an imaginary garden space. What would they grow and why?

Process reflection

Repeat the review and evaluation activity, but this time using elements of philosophical enquiry. What is more valuable from the following?

Good questions or polite turn taking
Hearing all voices or pushing for depth