Vegetable Garden

A memory from Barbara of growing up with Grandma Florence and Grandpa Paul:

Grandma kept homemade pies and goodies in her pantry on the shelves, where they stayed cool. Her canned vegetables were kept in the cold cellar in the basement.

Grandpa Paul’s vegetable garden was his pride and joy. He grew everything they needed for meals. The plum tree in the back grew the sweetest plums to eat of the tree or she would open a jar during winter months so you got to taste a bit of summer, and you knew it was right around the corner.

One of Grandpa’s favorite sandwiches was the peanut butter, onion and lettuce sandwiches. It was delicious and was right up there on top of the list with peanut butter lettuce, tomato and bacon. Fresh lettuce and spring onions from the garden was mouthwatering. Grandma would serve a warm bacon dressing to go over the lettuce. The recipes were endless with all the vegetables coming from the garden.

Grandma would make green beans, yellow beans with chopped boiled potatoes in a white sauce, served warm with fresh ground pepper and a little nutmeg. It was creamy, rich and delicious. It didn’t matter that it was a hot day, it was so good.

Helping Grandpa weed his garden was a chore but one that was rewarded with a trip to Aunt Ann and Uncle Tom’s dairy farm for ice cream. We would come back and sit out on the back porch or rock on the big porch swing and wait to catch fireflies.