Monday, July 11, 2016

What is a farm without a garden

Of course the old farmer raised acres of corn for the livestock,
and wheat as a cash crop, and with the related straw stashed in the barn.
But also there was a large vegetable garden near the house.
This was what is now called a survival garden.
There was a lot of fresh food in the summer snd lots of canning for the winter.
 
 
The garden was laid out with the smaller items nearer the house,
this was the south side of the garden. Radishes, swiss chard, onions, kohlrabi,
cabbages, green beans, cantaloupe, cucumbers  squashes, several rows of tomatoes,
and the corn on the north side. The reasoning for this is that the tall crops
would not  shade the rest of the garden.
 
 
Kohlrabi is an interesting vegetable. It is quite odd looking when growing,
this above ground bulb on a stem with a tuft of leaves sprouting out of the top.
I think it is starting to become mainstream now and if you haven't tried it do.
It is crisp and refreshing uncooked. Also very good cooked and buttered or in a roux.
We would pick it and eat it fresh in the garden.
Ditto the sun warmed tomatoes.
 

So guess whose job it was to hoe hoe hoe. The theory laid out for us was that if we each hoed one row a day, then back to the beginning to start over again so we could keep ahead of the weeds, this rarely happened, the weeds were winning the war in short order!
As we hoed, occasionally we might miss a weed and hit a bean plant or cuke or tomato.
We would look guiltily around hoping no one saw this indiscretion.
 
 
 
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1 comment:

JoseG said...

I love to do that with my Grand-Father...he even bought some smaller tools better suited for my age and size