There was a break in the clouds right after lunch today so I grabbed my camera. I wanted to see if anything in the garden had responded to the much needed rain we got last night. The potatoes and peas have popped through nicely and I’m sure the warm sun will send them soaring for the clouds – soon.
As I snapped away little memories popped up, too. When I was a very young girl we lived in Minnesota, upstate. Grandma Blaine always had a garden out back and the pea rows were my favorite. We kids were allowed to walk the rows and snag the pea pods from the twining plants. Then we’d pull the little string from one end to the other, a pea zipper – kind of - and break the pod open. There sat the little emerald jewels, a row of the sweetest peas you can imagine. I loved them and un-zipped pod after pod. My second favorite way to eat them was when Grandma would cook her spring vegetables in cream and butter. There were carrots and green beans in there, too, I think. And the butter and cream were from her own cows, of course. I hope somewhere kids still get to eat like that. What bliss!
A few weeks ago I pulled what was left of a bag of potatoes out of the basket in our pantry. Ewww. Eyes all over the place. Not suitable for eating, but maybe for planting? I made the suggestion to the master gardener and he said, “Sure, why not?”
So they're coming up, too. An old friend once told me she loved digging potatoes because it was like a treasure hunt – searching for gold. I remember her every fall when I sink the spade time after time in a wide circle around the near dead potato plants. After the ground is loosened I go in gently with a gloved hand and the fun begins. Each plump starchy globe goes into my waiting basket and all I can think of at that point is sour cream and chives. Yum!
God is good. Rain, wind, sun, a vegetable garden and memories. What other riches could one ask for?
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