Had a beautiful day today in St Louis, sunny and close to 60 degrees. Maybe Spring is finally on the way. I can't wait to get out and work in the yard. I am a big gardener, and I love working in the dirt.
I guess I come by it naturally. My grandfather was a farmer. He and Grandma owned a small farm outside Uniontown, MO. They raised pigs, cows, and crops. They never did become rich; they barely made a living some years. They never had indoor plumbing, and water was pumped from the cistern in the front yard. A wood stove in the kitchen and one in the living/bedroom provided heat. For air conditioning, they opened windows or turned on the box or window fans. Some may think this was a hard way to live, but the happiest times of my childhood were spent at Grandma and Grandpa's. I feel very blessed to have grown up with those experiences.
At home, we always had large gardens. At one time we had gardens in three different locations, and we raised everything. Mom stayed home with the four of us kids when we were younger, and her summers were filled with canning everything we harvested. The cellar was full of quart jars of every kind of vegetable and fruit. She even canned homemade katsup. To this day, I am addicted to katsup, although the bought kins does not compare to what I remember the homemade tasted like. I remember eating a whole meal of just homemade katsup on homemade bread. It was hard and hot work. We did not have air conditoning either, and it was unbearably hot in the house some days in midsummer when Mom was canning. In the winter when Dad was laid off from the quarry where he worked as a dynamiter, we were grateful to have the home-canned food, as we couldn't afford to buy storebought.
Other kids had more than us, and we thought it was bad at the time. Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing.
Some pics of my garden from last year.
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