It's just not the same

[Dave Grubb]

It is that time of year when I rejoice in fresh vegetables and fresh tastes and new recipes! I can honestly say that this time of year excites me

I look forward to seeing my "friends", some of whom I have not seen since last fall. At the farm stands I get to speak the dialect and look through all the offerings---many of which were picked the same morning.

Then I take them home and look for new recipes not yet tried---some are keepers, some are not---but all is good.

I compare that to my feelings in the same season of the year when I was young---and they are not the same! The garden, and all it entailed, was not fun for me because I was the one most charged with the maintenance of it---from weeding to picking and in some cases shucking. It was an additional chore added to my list of things that I was responsible for. I was in the garden while my big brother was out on a tractor.

It was also one of the few things that ran past evening milking time. I was the "keeper of the calves" and they needed to be fed on a schedule---and that schedule took precedence over garden chores. My caring for the calves was folded into milking time and when the calves were done I helped with the milking. We would finish milking and wash up at 7PM and then go in for dinner. That should have been it for the day---but no--if there were things not finished in the garden I got to have another go at it. I really didn't like the garden at that point

The years have mellowed my thinking

[Truckman]

I never really had much fun shucking black-eyed peas for my Grandmama, but I was the first to the table to eat them......Ben

[Dave Grubb]

My shucking duty was dependent on what my mother was doing. Green peas were great to eat but it took hours to get a bowl full! Lima beans were much better

Beyond the garden and at the sametime were all kinds of wild things---mushrooms, wild cherries, berries of all kinds for jelly. I didn't have a good record on the wild fruit---I'd pick a lot----but I also ate a lot

Speaking of lima beans---I am about to make lima beans the way my Mother often made them. She cooked the beans in hot water and when done she would pour the water off and add cream and a bit of butter

Because we had a big herd of Guernsey cows we used cream like "normal" people would use milk.