Strawberries, raspberries, lettuce, radishes, Swiss chard, green and yellow beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, squash and onions were his standard crops.
[Postcard from the side of the road: G. Harrison]
The sweet corn that came from his large back yard plots every summer was the best I have ever tasted.
Mother would daily walk from the kitchen with a large bowl under her arm and return 20 minutes later with fresh fruits and vegetables for our table.
Occasionally, roast chicken was served on Sunday. It meant there was one less bird in the coop attached to our small barn.
Though my four siblings and I grew up in austere times we didn’t fully know it because our parents supplied the muscle and the garden and coop supplied the magic.
Necessity is the mother of invention. As we enter a new age of austerity, many skills - ‘gone but not forgotten’ - will return.
***
Did your parents garden? Do you have a green thumb?
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7 comments:
When I was very small, I had my own little garden with a row each of carrots, beets and parsley, all of which I ate and enjoyed. I had the odd situation of a mother who never ate vegetable except potatoes and corn, and would actually spent meal time saying things like, "How can you eat that awful stuff?"
During WW II, Mom and I had quite a large Victory Garden. Don't know why, but I can't remember what we grew,but I remember working in it. I'm sure I ate what we grew, but she didn't. Maybe we supplied some neighbors.
In more recent years, I have grown veggies and flowers together.
When I was quite young, about 4-ish, I remember that we had a garden one year. The next year there was no garden and I distinctly remmeber being told either then or a few years later by my father that the family could make more money using the garden space to build a garage to fix cars in, than we could save by gardening. So I know next to nothing about gardening, and more than the 'average girl' about cars. Funny how the tables are turning as to what is considered the more useful knowledge!
My thumb is black and falling off. I'm THEEEE worst grower of anything. My house is where plants come to die. I even killed a CACTUS last year. How the hell do you kill a cactus? lol.
I've always wanted to start a garden. Every year I say I'm going to do it. Never do. I think that'll be my personal goal for this year. I'll have to research alittle and see what to do to get started. Thanks, great post as always
My parents did not have a garden - well, my mum used to grow woad for her dyeing experiments .....
I had a modest garden last year and plan to expand it this year. I'm also going to have cold frames (little skip with glee) thanks to you Mr H.
Are we allowed to keep chickens in London? Or ducks? Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman recommends the services of a garden duck to help keep pests down.
"You begin to see that growing even a little of your own food is, as Wendell Berry pointed out 30 years ago, one of those solutions that, instead of begetting a new set of problems--the way "solutions" like ethanol or nuclear power inevitably do--actually beget other solutions, and not only of the kind that save carbon."
From an article by Michael Pollan called "Why Bother".
readers,
bobbie mentioned 'victory garden' and i wasn't familiar with the term.
check out 'victory garden' @ http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/
to see an amazing b & w photo and some history from 1943.
the information makes me believe i'm on the right track re getting my hands dirty in the spring.
cheers,
GAH
theresa knows her cars, sheila can kill a cactus - we're in big trouble.
however, help is on the way; jesse will one day have a cold frame and be buried in lettuce and tomatoes. I'm thinking... all we need is a supply of freshly baked bread once she gets going!
i'm pretty sure chickens and ducks are a no no inside city limits. my dad kept chickens for decades in a very small town and, after a by-law was passed, was not allowed to start a new brood once the old ones were gone.
i think he snuck around that rule by adding a new one every now and again to keep things going.
much to learn,
cheers,
gord H.
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