I made an onion bouquet just like Mom instructed  us back in the day!

Monday morning, the first full day back from our vacation trip to Boston Again and Tasha Tudor’s Farm  I was invigorated from touring Tasha’s homestead in Vermont,   until  I stroll  to my  garden  and gasp at how  weedy it is,  though we had only been gone five days.

At times like these, when you can hardly see your vegetable plants for the weeds, the thought crossed my mind to  consider  just rototilling  it all under. Why not just give up and not mess with it? Seriously, that is what I felt like, on this “blue Monday” as my husband calls it,  when I stood looking at the weeds.

Then, these words of wisdom,  I quoted once before, and in which was quoted to me from my mother while growing up,   all came rushing   to my mind, “If at first you don’t succeed……….try, try again.”  How could I argue with that? 

So I quit complaining and got busy rototilling  all the weeds down.   I did rototill under our melons and corn, hardly a seed came up or else,  the deer ate them while we were gone. Time to replant. A do-over!

Who ate the bottom off my rosie-red strawberry?

I moved on to pull the weeds  from our  new raised bed strawberry patch. The plants are prolific.  I eyed a beautiful red strawberry, pulled it and before I could plop it in my mouth, I saw the whole bottom was eaten off. What causes that? Turtles? I suppose. Do you know?

I realized that I rather enjoyed working in the cool of the  morning. It made gardening much more pleasurable than if it was 90 degrees and I was pouring with sweat.The hens enjoyed the weeds that I threw over the fence to them too, singing their “thank you very much” song.

I pulled a bunch of green onions and while cleaning them at my farmhouse sink, my mind drifted back to when I was a  young teen  and learning to fix supper in our farmhouse under  mom’s leadership. My older sister Debbie and I  were instructed to “go pull onions” and once back inside she then  instruct us on how to “clean the onions” with a demonstration.   After the onions were all nice and clean  and trimmed, she instructs us to put them  in a glass jar of water and set them on the table. As I write, this, I wondered why we put them in a glass water jar?  I don’t know why do you? You’d think we put a bouquet on the table.

A fistful of organic green onions, check, success!

Furthermore, at the supper table,   I always sat at eleven-o’clock and Dad sat at twelve o’clock.  He loved the white bulb on the green onion plant. I did not. I enjoyed the greens, they weren’t hot. He knew this and after he placed a bite of pork chop, fried potato, pinto beans  and johnny cakes, all in his mouth at the same time,  he would bite off the onion end, all in one bite, then softly lay the greens next to my plate as he reached for another  onion out of our water jar bouquet.  I was delighted of course! In almost every instance when I have a green onion in my hand, I see that farmhouse meal taking place in my mind. Now, many years later, I too like the white bulb end as well as the greens just like Dad!

Now here’s the thing: As I cleaned these onions this morning, I realized that my garden was still alive and growing and I had just harvested a bounty of fresh, organic, green onions, planted at the beginning of spring.  I had  just experienced a most delightful walk down memory lane once again.  Though my garden isn’t all I had been hoping for at this stage in the game, I still have many months ahead to plant and replant and harvest,  and weed………….. well, weeds are just always going to be a challenge aren’t they.  Life has many challenges too and I wouldn’t  want to give up on it too soon.  So jump back in there and get going, you are closer to success  than you might think.

Take Joy!
Sherry

PS. Mom stopped in for a visit before I posted this. “Mom, why did you have us put the green onions in the glass of water?  “To keep  them moist and to take  a little zing out of them!!”  So now we know.