Bucket of goodness from a past garden
“There were unpleasant tasks and costly hazards to the harvest. Weather conditions, crop insects, snake bite, and accidents with tools, animals, and farm equipment could cause death or the loss of home and land, not to mention the misery caused by chiggers, and poison ivy.”
—Appalachian Livin’ Summer
Corie has always helped us in our garden and she helped Pap and Granny in their’s when she was a girl. But the full weight of fighting pestilence and weather in the garden was never fully on her shoulders until she got married and begin to raise food for her family.
This week she’s battled a thrip infestation and water damage from too much rain.
I’ve never even seen a thrip. I think they may have hitchhiked on a plant that was store bought. And there isn’t much you can do about the weather. It can be too wet, too dry, too cold, or too hot! If you’re a long time gardener you’ve surely experienced all of those conditions.
We’ve had minor accidents with tools in the garden, but thankfully no major injuries. Many many years ago a small girl was killed in a freak gardening accident not too far from here. Pap said it was the saddest and the hardest funeral he ever sung at. She was the cutest little girl you ever saw. I still remember her twinkling eyes.
Chiggers adore me. I pretty much stay eat up with them all summer long. A few years back long time Blind Pig reader Jackie McClung shared this little rhyme about them.
“There was a little chigger and he weren’t no bigger than the very tiny point of a pin,
But the bump that he raises just itches like the blazes and that’s when the scratching comes in.”
Oh chigger bites do itch!
We see snakes in our gardens but most are harmless and thankfully no one in my family nor even extended family of gardeners has ever been bit by the harmless or poisonous variety.
Our gardens have mostly been free from the damage of animals. The dogs in the holler have kept groundhogs, squirrels, and rabbits at bay since I was a girl. In recent years the deer have started nibbling at the edges and we’ve had to employ the help of motion activated alarms.
One time ages ago cows came all the way across the Pinkhook Lead to find Pap’s garden and enjoy a tasty snack. Their owner retrieved them promptly and paid Pap back with a load of fertilizer. They were life long friends who grew up with the plagues one faces when making a garden so neither man was too upset with the cows.
Even with all the obstacles, making a garden is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done. It brings me sheer joy to grow things and eat from the bounty. I inherited my feelings from Pap and Granny. I know those same feelings and desires have been passed down to Corie and it pleases me to no end.
Last night’s video: Changing People’s Minds About Appalachia With Your Help (Making a Gypsy Tart).
Tipper
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When Mom and I used to pick blackberries, we would combat the chiggers by wearing long pants and long sleeves and then rubbing kerosene around our necklines, wrists, waistbands, and ankles. Worked like a charm.
Growing up my father always had a very big vegetable garden where my brothers and I would spend many hot summer days watering, weeding, and harvesting – almost always in our bare feet regardless of how hard and dry or wet the soil was. As kids there was little enjoyment in the chores associated with the garden, but of course as we matured I’d hope that we all learned to really appreciate those summer days spent in the garden. The never-ending cuts, blisters, sun burns, ticks, and mosquito bites really were well worth the delicious vegetables our hard work provided. We just didn’t know it at the time. 35 years later, I still cannot stand hothouse tomatoes because they taste nothing like what I know a tomato should taste like. I rarely even buy certain store-bought vegetables that we conveniently have access to all year in the grocery stores because of the wonderful bounty we had access to growing up. Nothing worth having comes easy, as they say. So I guess learning to accept the chiggers, critters, snakes and unpredictable weather is all part of what makes the bounty so wonderful.
My Granny would tie rags, soaked in turpentine, around her ankles and wrists to keep the chiggers at bay when working in the garden. I think it worked pretty good.
Loved your video concerning the making of the tart. I would like to pass on an experience I had this past week. Tuesday was my 80th birthday and as I was driving my wife from Murphy to Copperhill to the dentist. As we were driving the car over heated. My wife , being the smart one, turned on the heater and we made it to Copperhill. I took the car to the NAPA service center and the manager immediately had someone look at the problem. After my wife’s appointment we went and had lunch. When we returned to the service center we were told that the mechanic had found a leak in my radiator. The manager told us they could replace the radiator tomorrow if we came back. I asked how much today’s work was and she said “don’t worry about it.” She didn’t know me from a hole in the wall yet she was willing to wait until the job was finished. By the way her mechanic made it possible to make it back to Murphy and again back to Copperhill. I returned the next day and a new radiator was installed. The total bill for both days was so reasonable I was floored. I spent most of the second day talking with the staff and the manager. I love your channel and we watch every episode. I grew up in New Hampshire and spent a lot of my free time with the people who live in and around the Appalachian Mountains. Real people with big hearts. Since moving to Murphy 12 years ago 99% of the men, women, and children have been very caring, loving people. Keep posting videos and the blogs coming and showing the world what Appalachia is all about.
Ron, how wonderful! I’m so glad they treated you so well 🙂 Thank you!
Tipper what I forgot to mention I bet I was the only 80 year old man who received a radiator as a birthday gift. Again thank you and your wonderful family for showing the world what a wonderful life can be had if you thank God for what you have and not complain about what you want. Wants and needs; God provides us with our wants. God bless you.
my mother got eaten up by chiggars when wearing support hose -solid toes to waist. shecwas miserable!!! I tried all the tried & true remedies to soothe her until we could get her to a doctor but baking soda, calamine, benadryl . . . nothing gave her any relief. In desperation I pulled out some mint gel toothpaste & started applying it. As soon as it touched those bites she said “that’s it!” “More!” “More!”
I kept applying it until we got her to a doctor who gave her benadryl injections and could monitor her. The toothpaste slowed the itch & made it almost tolerable. She never wore support hose outside again.
Deer ticks are found where deer are found. I have deer eating my garden here and ticks eating me.
Chiggers don’t bother me much. I don’t think they like me. I guess am too old and tough.
Tipper, my husband served twenty-three years in the military and had to spend a lot of time in the field. He said chiggers caused them a lot of misery until they discovered kerosene or diesel fuel kept them at bay. I hope this old time remedy helps you.
I have wrote many times about the problem many of us have with deer eating up our gardens. I think back to my childhood in the 50 and 60’s and think about how important a large garden was to not only my family but many others when we either grew or raised at least 90% of our year round food source. Back then a garden was a necessity unlike today when it is more of the “in thing to do.” Nowadays if your garden fails it is no huge problem, most of us can go to a grocery store or produce stand and buy what we want or need. It was not always like that for many of us. Despite the DNR, back in the times I am speaking of the deer problem would not and could not of been tolerated. Many of them would have been added to our meat supply, and it probably would of been wise for the DNR to have turned their head the other way.
Tipper, I have a ton of those little ditties somewhere in my head that I’ve taught to children through the years. Sometimes a word brings one out but so many times now I can’t find all the lines. they’re in there but I can’t locate them. Just last week I was trying to “mansplain” something to my wife and it took two days to find the word cartilage in my head.
My head is the same. As I age, words seem to like to play hide and seek in my head and I’m not a very good seeker. Then they show up out of nowhere. It’s kinda nice to know they’re still there.
Chiggers! My only girl cousins and I once made a “skirt” and “wigs” out of Spanish moss and played all afternoon in our costumes. We had chigger bites literally from the top of our heads to the top of our feet from the chiggers that lived in that moss. I was painted with red nail polish for 10 days and had to go to school with the red dots all over me. Lesson learned! Some bright young thing working in pharmaceuticals could make a fortune if she came up with a chigger cure. Every momma in the south would stock it like aspirin and bandaids
Thank for the always wonderful stories Tipper.
I live in the city, but I do have rabbits and small snakes. Yesterday as I was stacking lumber in my back yard, I found the snake. The rabbits haven’t bothered my little garden and I’m sure the ground snake is long gone!!
I hear we’re having some rain storms coming, so everyone stay safe.
I have often wondered what my parents would have done if they had animal and weather issues like we have today. The deer population has become so severe where I live that the Department of Fish and Wildlife is considering issuing out-of-season permits, as it has done before. My parents never had problems with animals destroying their garden, as many men hunted them for the family’s food, leaving very few to roam the mountains high above the gardens. Chiggers leave me alone so the ticks can have me all to themselves. They always attach to places I can’t reach, causing me to wake up friends late at night as I go running to their house with my alcohol and tweezers. I’m glad Corie inherited the gardening gene from her family.
I call myself a “tick magnet”.
Shoot Ed, I call myself a “babe magnet” but I have never seen any evidence of it being true! All I can attract is flys.
Good morning all. It’s raining here in Eastern NC.
I tell people that I’ve been gardening all my life and every year Mother Nature teaches me how little I know.
I have learned that okree don’t germinate well until the soil temp gets to 65 at a 3 “ depth, so I wait til late May or early June to plant them.
I watched your video last night. There are no perfect people or perfect places to live. I think what attracts people to your channel is that you and your family strive to live as God intended and that’s what gives us peace. I think God watches your videos and reads your blog and smiles.
Amen.
Chiggers love me also. I don’t know if I am allergic, but the affected areas swell up to the size of half dollars and itch like fire for several weeks. After the very expensive bug repellent brand clothing became available years ago, I did a little research and found “Sawyer Premium Permethrin Insect Repellent Aerosol Spray” at Walmart in the camping section. I rounded up 3 sets of old jeans, teeshirts, socks and ball caps, sprayed the outside of them thoroughly with the stuff per directions. Works like a charm and lasts for about 6 washings before I respray. The repellent is for clothing only, not your skin. I don’t go out on my homestead in the summer unless I am wearing my “bug clothes”.
Good morning Tipper. Your bucket of goodness photo is beautiful. I can’t wait to go to the garden and collect my own bucket of goodness. I have been collecting a little basket of lettuce every couple of days. We have enjoyed it so much. I love knowing it has zero pesticides to worry about, and we grew it ourselves in our own little garden. I watched your video last evening. The Gypsy tart looked yummy, but I most enjoyed your long ‘conversation style’ talk about changing people’s minds about Appalachia. I feel like I have my own group of friends from all over by participating in this blog. I look so forward to reading your blog and everyone’s comments each day. I learn things, get entertained, and get a peek into so many lives that it feels like a family. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this blog each day and for all of your videos. I would be so sad if it ever stops—so please keep on teaching and entertaining us—and we will keep reading and learning about Appalachia and each other.
Brenda, I say amen to your comment, I feel the same way. I have always thought of Appalachia as being the mountains of NC, Tenn, W Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky. I think I remember Ed telling me in the past that Greenville, SC was also considered a part of Appalachia. If that is true, I am glad and honored to be a flatlander Appalachian. Many of the ways of my family and neighbors are very similar to some of the things Tipper blogs about.
There is alot to learn in gardening. I have been successful with cucumbers and tomatoes but my zucchini did nit produce at all! They would grow a little then die out right next to tje cucumber. So weird!
Yesterday I uncovered and cranked my rear tined tiller. I let it warm up for a few minutes but, instead of just taking off as I usually do, I raised it up and looked under the tines. There lay a snake all coiled up, right where the tines had been. It was long and slender with a faint, washed out yellow color and orange markings. I have never seen a snake like that before.
If things had been going normally yesterday I might never have seen the snake. Any normal day I would have squeezed the handle and “off we go” but, for reasons unknown to me, I didn’t. So the snake survived and so did I.
Yep, there is trouble that goes with a garden. And yes, troubles have increased with global trade. Somehow though, the troubles have not yet (but sadly will in time) overwhelmed the values received. There are lots of parables to be found in a home garden and farm fields, as the Lord told us. Maybe that is because they require co-operation with created order, but also resistance to it. I could make a long list of my garden troubles but I am still grateful that I have one, frustrations and all. It satisfies needs of mine (beyond the eating) that I can’t even name myself. Besides that, it has been a reason to be attracted to BP&A and to stay and what a blessing that has been. Truly, I believe the Lord has provided us for one another here but not just here. I suspect world over He has built online communities of interest among His people. Beyond that I cannot now go but He has His good reasons.
I recollect that when I was a boy that people put a fence around the house and turned the livestock loose. I also remember being chased to the kitchen door by a neighbors bull.
Our rickety chicken wire and electric wire run along the top fence keeps the deer and rabbits out of our garden. Without it we could not even grow a garden. While pretty and cute the deer and rabbits do a lot of damage here in our neighborhood. If you want a garden, something has to be put up to keep them out. I’ve seen some fencing that is 8 feet tall around our various neighbors garden patches. That would be pretty expensive to put up. Thankfully ours works. Our worst enemy is the bugs and I’ve found that diatomaceous earth does a good job keeping them under control. I only use Sevin Dust as a last resort. We’re looking forward to the peas that are currently blooming, I pulled most of the lettuce due to bolting, we’ve really enjoyed that! Soon we will have beans, potatoes, onions and so much more to eat!!!
If it won’t rain, it’ll be pouring. My Nana says that. Every year is different with different bugs, weather, soil conditions. I sometimes whine, but I love it and love my garden every year whatever the hardships. So wonderful that Corie is now hit by the gardening bug too. ❤️
I remember a similar thing happened to my dad’s garden. Our neighbors cow got out and couldn’t resist the silver queen corn. But like you said garden can be a joy or a pain in the neck. Today my arch enemy has become the deer population.
I guess the worse thing I have heard of in my lifetime was my neighbor getting run over by his tractor while plowing his garden and being killed. Too much to write to go into details. I read Ed’s comment late last night about something pulling up his corn and his pain and how much it hurts him to try to have a small garden. I can sympathize with him, Tuesday I tried to hoe out grass and replant my okree in my small garden while sitting on a knee high bar stool. Tuesday night and yesterday my legs and back were killing me because of hurting so bad. I also think about him talking about the birds or animals being protected. Around here it is the deer that does so much damage, they no only destroy our gardens, and do serous damage to the crops of farmers but cause many wrecks and accidents. Some people have been killed in these accidents. They are bread and butter, pride and joy of the SCDNR, they dearly love to brag about how they have brought the deer population back during the last 40-50 years. Unless it has recently changed South Carolina has the longest continuous deer hunting season of all the states, it starts in August and goes to January.