Matt got the big garden har’d this week. Seeing all that rich dirt turned over makes me anxious for planting time.
There’s something about fresh turned soil that makes you want to walk all over it barefooted.
Years ago when Pap had the garden har’d the girls would take their shoes off and jump right in. They loved looking for arrowheads, other unusual rocks, or anything that caught their eye.
Usually the haring would take place on a cool airish day, but that didn’t deter them from shucking their shoes and socks.
One year Corie had been sick and I wouldn’t let her feel that cool moist dirt on her barefeet. I could hear Granny in my head saying she’d take a backset if I let her. It made Corie mad, but she listened to her momma and stood by watching her sister run free over the garden.
Matt made a couple of changes that I know will really help us this year. He shortened the length on one side to leave us room to access the garden better by tractor and foot. He also made the garden a little more narrow on the side that is bad to wash. Hopefully the ditch he cut will take the water down and around the garden instead of straight over the rows.
I cleaned up the blackberry patch while he worked and then we made good use of some of the mulch from Granny’s trees by spreading it all around the blackberries and the grapevine. I’m hoping that will help keep the weeds at bay.
Har is a word that surprised me. Until I started writing here on the Blind Pig and The Acorn I had no idea that har wasnāt really a word, but a corruption of the word harrow.
Last night’s video: The Panther on Cold Mountain & Other Stories 13.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
My kids and my sisterās kids go barefoot all the time, but it has taken some creativity to get the other moms in our neighborhood to see how barefoot is best. For example, our new next door neighborās son became best friends with our boys almost as soon as they moved in, but she refused to let him play barefoot even in our yard. So when we had just run the tiller in our garden I got totally distracted and left the hose running completely by accident and wouldnāt you know just like that there was some really squishy mud. Somehow, our boys totally on their own somehow got the idea they should go have fun in the mud. My our boys were soon happily squishing the mud between their bare toes, but for some reason their little friend was holding back. I could tell he needed some encouragement, so my sister and I kicked our flip flops off and I picked him up by one arm and sister by the other and carried him right into the middle of the deepest muddiest swinging him between us. He kept trying to say something that maybe kinda sounded like āmy new shoes,ā but our boys were making so much noise we couldnāt really hear I guess. Oops! Oh my gosh he wasnāt barefoot like our kids!! I realized my totally innocent mistake when I looked down and saw his white tennies sinking ankle deep into the mud. That little boy never wore shoes to our house again til winter!
Hi Tipper,
I grew up with plowing, discing, harrowing, and dragging fields. Here in the Blue Ridge our soil has a high level of clay so it goes from brick hard to dust in what seems to be a day. Anyway, daddy had to
do a series of work on his fields whenever he wanted to plant better grass (he like orchard grass for the cows to graze on with some clover in it). In the late winter early spring he would drag the field with old
tires chained together to pulverize the cow piles. That really helped make the clay soil more fertile and things look so much better. Then he would plow the field he was going to replant or whatever he wanted
to plant in it. After plowing he would harrow (harrer) it with a wooden “x” shaped thing with big spikes sticking into the ground. It really broke up the top of the plow furrs. The last step was discing the ground before he planted whatever he was going to plant. The disc would make it soft and easy to plant in.
We didn’t have arrowheads to look for here but we liked to walk through the field and see if we could find quart crystals and earthworms. I still like doing that when we dig up a patch of land. Yes, it is the Appalachian in me. Take care, Kathy Patterson
PS My mother always used the term “Roach up your hair”. She used it to mean fix it up fancy with hair clips and waves. I thought it was something from WW II but who knows. Thanks for bringing back the old words and making them poplar again. Love it. KP
Made your mayonnaise cake today Tipper, wow, so good!!!! I’ll be using that recipe as my go to chocolate cake that’s for sure! I lined my 8X8 square pans with parchment (that hung over on all side a tad,) lifted the cake out of the pan holding the paper, flipped the cake layer onto a Flexible Plastic Cutting Board, and then slid the layer on to the last layer. The square cake looked so pretty and different!
Jackie and Ammons, I have 4 sections of the store bought drag harrows that belonged to my grandaddy. I have them in two sets with two sections connected together in each set. I can easily pull them with my tractor while discing at the same time. Around here it is common to connect a log or something else heavy behind a disc harrow with chains to help smooth the dirt behind the harrow. Doing this allows you to disc and smooth the dirt at the same time. When I say doing this with a disc harrow, I am not referring to 3 point hitch harrows but the bigger pull type harrows on rubber wheels that lift up with a hydraulic cylinder.
My family was limited by the fact that we tilled land that was unsafe for a tractor to go. We had to use horses and mule that could only supply one horsepower. Maybe folks that were blessed with flat land had it better but I wouldn’t have traded places with them for anything.
I never operated a tractor until I was 70 years when I bought one from my son’s father in law who had just bought it new a few months before he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It came with a backhoe attachment, and angle blade and a box blade. I didn’t even get a plow. I have no real use for it but what can you do when you see a brother in need.
PS: Daddy owned 149 acres but could plant about 5. The rest was planted in trees. None of those matured before Daddy died.
Debbie – No word it corrupted if the listener understands what you intended to convey. It might be just a variation or perhaps a dialect. Many of our so called “corrupted” pronunciations go back to the old English and Scottish language so it is the mainstream that have drifted away.
A dictionary definition of corrupt “change or debase by making errors or unintentional alterations”. We haven’t changed or debased anything. We pronounce words the way they have been handed down through many many generations. Hollywood and TV have not only interjected is own homogenous ways of speech but in everything in modern life. That’s the source most corruption these days!
Het is as common as heated in my area.
Not being raised on a farm but having an older brother who sold tractor parts to farmers, I learned what a disc harrow was at an early age. In fact, for most of my decades I thought that a disc harrow was the only kind of harrow. When I took the time to look it up, I found that there are several different forms.
I looked into what harrowing does in treating soil and the etymology of the word:
”
What Harrowing Accomplishes
Harrowing is distinct from plowing in that plowing turns and inverts the soil deeply while harrowing works the surface to:
Break up clods left by plowing
Smooth and level the seedbed
Cover broadcast seed
Uproot germinating weeds
Incorporate fertilizer or amendments into the top layer
Break up surface crusting after rain
Etymology of “Harrow”
The word has a satisfyingly ancient lineage:
From Old English “hearwa” or “herwe” ā though the Old English form is not well attested, suggesting it may have arrived with Norse settlers
More confidently traced to Old Norse “herfi” ā a harrow
Related to Middle Dutch “harke” and Old High German “harpha” ā both meaning a rake or harrow
All trace back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning to rake, scratch, or drag across a surface
Possibly connected to a root meaning “to seize or take” ā which connects to the figurative uses of the word.”
Glad to see to that Matt and Mr. K. took care of the soil and readied it for planting. I truly enjoy the gardening posts and videos . . . almost as much as the interview videos. I wish you would do more interviews, Tipper. Find all the oldest members of your community and interview them at length (if they will sit for it) and find more of those very interesting people who populate your part of Cherokee County, please.
Amen to that last paragraph Robert, but I wouldn’t limit it to Cherokee County. Cherokee, Clay, Grayham, Macon and Swain counties are regionally unique especially the parts along and west of the Little Tennessee River. The part of present day North Carolina that wasn’t considered a part of it. Maps called it Cherokee or Indian Lands. That’s were your ancestors and mine lived and thrived among the Cherokees until they were taken away.
You are correct in wishing the interviews to extend beyond Cherokee County. Of course they should!
Wouldn’t it be great if Tipper could cover all those counties and interview all the best and brightest and most colorful characters? Do you suppose she might be able to interview one of the matriarchs of a Cherokee clan? That would be SOME content!
We always plow the garden and then disc the garden. I have never heard harrow or har used around here. Itās a lovely, descriptive word. I love smelling a freshly plowed garden. Itās a beautiful spring-like day here in WV. I have been cleaning the house with the front door wide open. My next plan is to plant myself on the porch with a good book. I am praying for you Norman and Bennie. Have a great day everyone.
Hi Tipper, Matt and Acorns. I hope to train my raspberries into better rows. They have gone wild the past 3 yrs. I’ll try to do like you did your blackberries, itil just take me way longer to get it done. I’d like to do a few herbs in grow bags and I’ll plant some red peppers for soup. I might do a few tomatoes, green onions and parsley for tabouleh. I want to plant bush varieties of yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers. Nothing will be tilled, hared or dug cause I’m not able. I plan on getting 4 pounds of white clover seed to scatter on the 1/2 acre and that will help with not mowing along with all the moss that is taking over the back yard. I love it. My blueberries are looking good. I pray that everyone that tries to grow food and flowers (gotta look out for the butterflies, hummingbirds and honeybees) has abundant crops. I keep everyone here and up Wilson Holler in my prayers. I love y’all.
Walking Barefoot On Dirt Or (Grounding) Is Good For You. We Used To Go Barefoot All Summer Long. I Pray Y’all Have Bountiful Harvest This Year. May God Bless Y’all With Your Comings, Goings…
Good morning Tipper, All our snow finally melted. I can see my the dirt in my raised beds now. can’t wait to get out and turn it! Hope you all had a good day yesterday. I think that was such a nice way to remember your mother’s birthday by having a cake and getting together that first first birthday is bittersweet to think about. yesterday reminded me how Life is full of sorrow and joy, while you were celebrating your mother’s birthday after her passing, a friend of mine was celebrating a new baby granddaughter who was born yesterday. take care everybody and God bless.
The smell of the fresh turned soil is what I loved and seeing daddy on the tractor enjoying every moment, excited as a child on Christmas morning. Looking forward to seeing your garden get started and Corie’s too.
Tipper – it has been many years – emphasis on the ‘many’ since I did any gardening – but my fingers still itch and my nose still twitches when you all share about getting your gardens prepped for planting times. I can still smell the sweet ‘earthy’ odors, feel of the cool dampness of freshly turned soil, and picture in my mind seeing all the planted seeds or bulbs popping up as they pushed their way to sunlight. We didn’t have any other ‘equipment’ but our hands, strong backs, and hard work with shovels, picks, hoes and rakes to prep our gardens back in the day – digging in any compost at the same time – and we had a big garden similar to yours plus a whole slew of smaller areas – be the plots for edible or beauty – so for us the words were: prepping, turning or digging up the garden/s. Harrowing was used more for the ‘bigger’ farms that had equipment. Whatever way you all prepare your gardens this year may they grow lush and abundantly and the weather cooperative with its sun and rain times.
I spell “har” and “nar” with two rrs, harr and narr.
There is a place on the Little Tennessee where the river is restricted down to just a few feet wide. It is a wild place to be when the river is up. I have always know it as the “the narrs”. A little while back while looking at an old map of the area I found it labeled as “Narrs”. Fontana Lake backs up over the Narrs now when it is at full pool. Only when they release water for more important people downstream is it visible.
I’ve heard har most of my life. We’ve been swamped with rain for 5 days. Everything everywhere is flooded and standing so absolutely no harring for us.
We use the word ‘het’. My guess, it’s also corrupted.
One of my earliest jobs on my grandad’s one-horse, one-cow farm was walking beside a toothed harrow– he called it a drag harrow–as he got ready to lay off rows and plant corn. He rented somebody’s senior mule for the day to pull the harrow. I was afraid of Dan, Grandpa’s big iron-gray Percheron plow horse. Old Dan had hooves the size of pie pans. I didn’t want him stepping on my foot.
Your shed looks so nice, Tipper. That is a beautiful photo. Itās sweet that Corrie listened to you, even if begrudgingly, and didnāt take a backset. š
Harrow is a good, useful word as it can be re-used very descriptively for breaking up things other than gardens and fields. For example, “That song harr’s my feelings every time I hear it.” I’ll have to do my own hand version of harrowing because once I get down about a foot I turn up yellow clay gobs that are going to bake into hard lumps that will need to be broken up. We were on the western edge of a thunderstorm yesterday and got a little rain. The setting sun was shining into it turning everything all silvery and shining. Looked but did not find a rainbow though the sky to east and south was dark blue with the trees here highlighted with sunshine. Very pretty and still, an evening blessing.
What a joy to see the first plow of your garden. It won’t be long before we see all that corn covering it. I too noticed the red shed on the hill at your house. Y’all have made a lot of important changes during the winter that will help you all year long.
Hope all the harring wasn’t too harrowing for Matt… š
Morning everyone. I always like the view from Corie’s house. I like how she can see all her loved ones homes. It did take me a minute to recognize the red shed. It looks so nice, adds interest to the area. You are getting so much work done. Me, not a bit. We are usually too wet. Thunderstorms will be here soon. Anna from Arkansas.
Tipper who is the author of the book Dorey/Dorie you mentioned? Iād like to read it. I loved Letters to Lori. Iām reading Christy now and I love it too. Thanks for the reference. Blessings
I was so lucky to grow up on a farm. Running barefoot through the freshly turned soil was the sign that spring had arrived! I’ve lived the past 33 years on my little 12 acres of heaven, surrounded by hundreds of acres of a century farm. When my farmer neighbor turns the soil each spring and I smell that rich aroma, I still get giddy. I have refrained from running barefoot but who knows. Life is short so in the next few weeks , I may just be posting that I shucked my shoes and went trotting around the fields!!
The nice weather weāve been having in western NC has me itching to plant too. The birds have been enjoying this nice spring weather too. Theyāve been singing their little hearts out this morning.
Made my toes wiggle in my bunny slippers!
When I was a young in and the ground got harrowed, I remember running and jumping over the mounds and hills of fresh dirt because in the 1970ās that was BIG fun to a middlināsize and age kid like me at the time. The tractor man came every year, but eventually he quit coming like all good things end. I canāt remember when he quit coming, but I know a big part of my childhood was owed to that garden and more importantly I remember mommy singing Bringing in the Sheaves as she would would work and I thought she was singing bringing in the sheets cause it was sung around the clothes line very near the garden. Lol Iād give money I donāt have and lots of it-to hear and see mommy one more time with her little sun hat on and her tan and graceful figure hanging sheets. And as I say that, tears find a way to well up and come down like good oil on a beard or good oil poured in a sheepās eyes to help him. Sometimes tears are bitter sweet. Iām sure you all know all about it. I got sprouts popping up so Iām thrilled about possibilities to grow in the dark gold known as humble dirt. I know you Pressleys garden only improves every year with a fix to this and that and modification here and there. Iād say YOURE ON IT!!!!! Get to it and God bless every āacornā there is out here!!! Also bless us blind pigsā¦we will sniff our wayā¦ lol
Oh, how I would love to walk barefoot through a newly plowed garden again!
good morning friend, pray for my brother, Bennie Chester, it seems his time is running out, pray for me and my uncle Waldo Curtis as we travel to see my brother today, thank you and God bless you very much
Iām sorry. I will pray for you all.
Sorry to hear this, Norman. Praying for peace for you, Bennie and your uncle. I know you will be a great comfort to your brother during this time.
Mr. Norman I will be praying for you all. God bless youā¤ļø
We are excited about the gardening season this yr too! I pray we all have a good yr!
Good morning! Seeing the picture above, I noticed something new. The red shed is now so visible when you look up your way from the big garden. Weather here in TN has been hovering around 80 and even above the last few days but that always means the usual Spring weather is about to change to storms and rain. It’s what the trees and flowers need to come alive.
Hi Tipper,
Yes, it took me a while to figure out what haring meant although I grew up on a farm in Michigan and often was recruited to help my dad with harrowing the fields in the early spring.
I love languages of all kinds and speak 6 of them fluently but never imagined how much difference there was in our own American English until I found your YouTube posts.
I meant to also say this. I say harrow or har for the tractor equipment I use for plowing. My friend that was raised on a large Iowa farm didnāt know what I was talking about the first time he heard me say these words, he said in Iowa it is disc and discing.
I grew up farming in East TN. The disc was called a disc harr. The one with gaps in the discs was called a bog harr. The latter was used when there were a lot of those hard clods in the fields. They were almost like concrete. We also had a triangle shaped “drag harr”. It was made of 4x4s with long railroad spikes driven through to protrude about 4 inches into the dirt. We pulled it with one ox or one horse. A few farmers had store bought drag harrs. These were about 4 feet wide and could be linked together. Dad made ours. These were used mainly to smooth the surface and disturb weeds that had sprouted since the plowing and discing
It’s discing only if you use a disc har. Other hars have chains or spikes to smooth the surface. When I was younger we would cut a small tree (limbs and all) and pull it around the field with a horse. That made the smoothest surface of all.
Lately, we have had a little bit of rain in the last few weeks that makes it too wet to plow. If ground is plowed wet it make very hard āclodsā that will never break up. I am glad for the rain, the latest news for my area is we are already in a drought and behind on rainfall. Unless I change my mind, I donāt think I will even try to have more than a few tomato plants this year. Along with my arthritis, hot, dry summer weather, cost of fertilizer, fuel and DEER, it is no longer worth it for just me and my son. It is cheaper for me to just buy what I want from a farmers market.