Pap showing off an ear of silver queen corn he grew
I can’t even explain how happy I am to have Pap’s big garden planted with corn again.
Working all day in his old garden made my heart sing with joy.
The garden was a place Pap loved to be. I know he enjoyed the satisfaction of growing food to feed his family and I certainly know he enjoyed eating all that goodness straight from the good earth.
But there was something else Pap loved about it.
For many families in Appalachia gardening is generational. Every time Pap worked in his garden he was continuing the work his mother, father, and grandparents did when he was a boy.
As he tilled, sowed, and harvested his mind studied on the many parables of growing in the Bible.
Even the very act of making the garden can be looked at in a symbolic way.
My brother’s house hadn’t been built yet and the entire area was covered in trees. Pap hewed his garden spot out of the woods, briars, and bushes that had been growing there for generations.
Although he continued to help his parents with their gardens until they died, it was important for him to grow food on his own land to feed his own family.
Since my brother and his wife first said they were planning on downsizing and moving I’ve wondered what Pap would say about them leaving the holler.
I know he’d have told them to do whatever they thought was best. He never was one for overstepping other folks and their decisions. He would have loved the place they ended up at just like the rest of us do.
If I could tell him about it all I know he’d feel like I do. Sad that Steve and Kim are gone from the holler, but happy that Austin and Chatter are living in the house he built so long ago. If I could tell him about his garden being planted with corn, beans, and taters once again to feed us all I know he would get a twinkle in his eyes and tell The Deer Hunter and me that we did good.
He’d be pleased that the generational tradition of growing food he was brought up in has been continued by us.
Tipper
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I got three little rows of corn planted yesterday right before the rain chased me in the house. The ground was a little too wet to plant but I couldn’t wait out the rain they are predicting. Also the seeds are 6-7 years old but they germinated well late year. Wish me luck!
Oh how you bless us all Tipper with your life! I started getting teary eyed looking at Pap’s hands holding that beautiful silver queen corn. Sharing your family with us is such a a blessing to me and others. Thank you. I’m 74 now but when I was little our house set on approximately 1/2 -3/4 of an acre. My mom had a big (at least to me) fenced in garden. I hated that place, I was afraid of snakes but I still had to help. I just didn’t understand what a blessing that garden was. Praying for Granny. Grammy from Texas
I’m in tears as I read this remembering my own daddy. He loved his growing of things in the garden. Anything he planted would grow and be so good. Thank you for reminding me of this special memory. I love reading about and watching ya’ll. Thanks again for the memory. I do have a special prayer request I’m asking for ya’ll to pray about for me. Thank you and God bless!!
There’s nothing like carrying on family traditions and handing down family property. I have lived in my maternal grandparents’ house for almost 50 years. My grandparents built this house on the original foundation of my grandmother’s parents’ house that once sat on this same piece of land. Several generations of my family, including my own children, took their first steps on this land. The latter being said, I can absolutely understand and appreciate how you feel about your holler and planting corn on your daddy’s old garden plot!!!!!
Tipper,
What a beautiful legacy Pap has left and how eager you are to follow the same traditions . Pap is smiling at you and Matt making a garden to feed your family just like he did to feed you, your brothers, and Granny. Please give Granny a big hug for me. Blessings to everybody, Hilary
Oh, Tipper…I think Pap knows that Austin and Chatter are living in the house that he built, and he watched over you and Matt working to revive his garden. He will be right there as you work, and eventually enjoy those first delicious ears of corn. Matt is a thoughtful, kind Dad for his gifts to his girls on their first Mother’s Day. what a joy to hear Granny is feeling stronger everyday, Have a blessed week.
What a touching post and tribute to your father, Tipper. Thanks for sharing.
My memories of growing up in Southwest VA are ver similar to those of you you who have submitted comments. We had a small farm of about 20 acres and we children were required to help with gardening and preserving food until we left home. We only bought things we could not grow, such as coffee. We occasionally had Kool Aide but never soft drinks or dopes as some people called them. We rarely had candy unless it was homemade. We usually had two cows, and my mother sold milk and butter, with no permit required in those days. We had two or three pigs each year, and those were our meat. The main things in our garden were green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, corn, peppers, squash, onions, cucumbers. We had apple, peach, and cherry trees. Blackberries were available on a nearby property. Pick your own, of course. We children had to help with the whole process, from planting to canning or freezing One non-food item my mom always insisted on was a long row of different kinds of flowers running clear across the garden. My dad would grumble and say thst flowers aren’t food But they were definitely food for Mom’s soul. She would put vases of flowers on the table where we ate They brightened our home and lifted our spirits. And I think Dad secretly liked the flowers, too. I still love having fredh flowers in my home
I love this so much and love that you too will pass this on to your grand babies as well. I wonder if each generation will always call it Paps big garden. I hope so. That’s so wonderful to think about. I’m so happy for all of you! I can’t wait until the corn comes in!
One of the joys of my father in law was working in his large garden especially after he retired. Counting his corn patch it would be close to 2 acres. He and my mother in law would preserve most of the things grown. After retiring he couldn’t wait each spring to start his garden, he would often times plant a small garden before planting his larger garden. He would call this small garden his “frost garden” -he said the frost will probably kill it but I couldn’t wait any longer! I remember when I was growing up I didn’t like working in our large garden and would sometimes need a dose of hickory tea to encourage me. Now when looking back, I realize how important our large garden was for the family, it was the difference between having food to eat throughout the year or going hungry.
Oh my goodness this blog brought tears to my eyes! God family home and growing food for the family is ALL close to my heart so I relate to this so much! Thanks for sharing this about your life Tipper!
The ear of corn is beautiful and I love the post about generations, but the thing that got me most was “Daddy’s hands”. Oh to see my Daddy’s hands again. I will have to look back in some pictures now. Thank you for this post.
My dad loved his garden too. Especially picky about the corn. Silver Queen was a favorite. He worked in his garden early mornings and I know it was an important time for him and God to talk. He would bring in a few ears to cut and fry bacon. Mom would make biscuits and we would have fresh corn, tomatoes, and bacon biscuit sandwiches! He insisted that corn had to be picked, shucked, cut and frozen the same day before the sugars started to develop. Never refrigerated.
Wow..those were long days because it was rows and rows of corn! But a delicious treat all through the winter. Actually winters to come…it freezes well and lasts perfectly for several years. When a product is picked and prepared properly it lasts longer than one would imagine.
So Beautiful!!!!
So inspiring!!!!
So full of Love !!!!
Thank you for sharing this with all of us 🙂
I hope wherever we locate next (this apt is not a good place) that there will at least be space etc to have a patio garden anyway…there is such joy in eating things you grew (with GOD’s help, of course). And tilling the soil of your ancestors must indeed be a blessing!!
I had a container garden on my patio a few years ago and it produced better than I had expected it to. Food we grow ourselves really does taste better than produce in a grocery store.
Family, food and the garden. It really is a continuation from the ancient past. Civilization could end tomorrow and the folks with gardens will survive.
This beautiful story reminds me so much of the love my own Daddy had for his garden. I think he was happiest when he was in his garden working so hard but yet so fulfilled and proud he could provide for his family, and it was definitely a family affair. We all helped as much as we could, and it was quite an undertaking, but it brought all of us together and those memories will go with me for the rest of my life. Tipper, I think Pap is smiling for sure.
Tipper, you are a wealthy woman. The love that has woven your family together has made you very wealthy woman indeed. Thank you for sharing a bit of that love with us.
Tipper – such a heart warming post of remembering and of continuing to carry on with the old ways and traditions passed down from one generation to the next. Certainly not the priority of todays culture and that makes my heart very sad – but with you allowing us all to peek in on your family lives and ways you bring such blessings and joy. May you be equally blessed each day with the blessings you all give out.
This post made me so teary eyed. My grandparents and back all farmed and grew gardens. My parents had no interest in keeping those traditions alive but my grandfather was an avid garden up until the last year of his life when he was to sick. I now live in his house and garden on the same land. I think he would be so pleased to know his granddaughter and great grandchildren are gardening on his land. And not just gardening, but actively trying to learn and keep all our mountain traditions alive and past on to the next generation.
In tears.
Tipper, you too have carried on the traditions of your people and taught them to your daughters and in time will teach them to your grand sons. As time goes on your daughters along with your grandchildren will continue on the love of tradition of your peoples ways. Appalachia will be celebrated through all your family generations.
A very touching and heart warming remembrance of Pap, Tipper! He is smilin’, indeed • rest assured, you and the Deer Hunter have “done good”!
I expect to have some sort of garden as long as I live, even if it’s in pots on the porch. My wife doesn’t understand it but she has flowers all over the house. She says we can buy food without all that hard work and fighting the deer, coons and other varmints out of it. I say we can also buy artificial flowers that don’t have to be watered and fertilized constantly.
Hopefully, your girls will be planting corn in Pap’s big garden and saying the same thing about you and Matt someday.
My uncle grew silver queen corn and it was the best!
What a sweet remembrance Tipper. Thank you for sharing. I was a Daddy’s girl too. Miss him everyday.
I have a feeling Pap is smiling down from heaven seeing another generation carrying on this beautiful tradition. Looking forward to seeing the bounty from Pap’s garden.
I have probably posted this before, but it fits so well with your post today. “If I have land, they can’t starve me to death.” That was a saying I heard my Dad say many be the time. Just a little pondering on it reveals how foundational it was to freedom and independence in pioneer history and still continues to be today. Reminds me of the book “Five Acres and Independence”. It is the life I wish I had lived and was now living.
Ron, your comment reminds me of something I was told about my wife’s grandaddy. When he was still young and only had a couple of children he moved from a sharecropper farm to the city of Greenville, SC and worked as the elevator operator in the Poinsettia Hotel. The family began to get a few things that couldn’t have on the farm and then the depression hit and they pretty much lost everything and were going hungry. He told his older son (my father in law) he was going back to the farm and be a sharecropper. He said we didn’t have much but we were never hungry. He did this and was a sharecropper for rest of his life. He didn’t own the land but he could grow his own food. I want everyone to think about this, my wife’s other granddaddy along with the help of his sons sharecropped 132 acres of land owned by the country doctor. He was told by the doctor if he would sharecrop his land for him until he died (the doctor) he would give him the land. The doctor died in 1953 and in his will he gave the 132 acres, along with a large country farm house to him. Her granddaddy had nothing but the doctor’s word that he would give this to him. Used to be a man’s word was better than a contract. I hope I will be remembered for my word being as good as gold or a contract.
I love that whole story Randy. You and I, I think, remember the saying, “His word is his bond.” No paper nor handshake even required. PRO10:07 The memory of the just is blessed:….
One of the things that makes me saddest about seeing my grandmother’s house every summer when we go for a family reunion is that her garden spot is gone. The people who now own her house have made all sorts of changes to it; in one sense the changes make it easier to let go, but seeing the corner of the yard standing empty where her little garden used really makes me miss her. My mother raised a huge garden every year when my siblings and I were growing up, and I’m so thankful she taught me how to garden and to can. My daughter was never the least bit interested in it, but I’m hopeful my forthcoming granddaughter will pick up where I leave off. I want to be able to pass my precious bean seeds on to someone!
Tipper, if your goal in this piece was to sum up life in Appalachia, you hit it out of the park. As simple as this piece is, it says it all. Thank you for all you do for all of us.
It is so wonderful to see how God is working through and in your family. I know you miss Steve and Kim being close by, but I know that you are so very happy that Corie and Austin were able to move closer. So glad that Granny is feeling and doing better. I know that she is awaiting that first mess of green beans!
My daddy grew up deprived of both parents, enough food, clothing and a stable place to call home. There were eight children left orphans in 1936 when their mother passed (father died in 1933). Daddy called them Mommy and Poppy. Their ages ranged at 17, 15, 13, 11(my dad’s age), 9, 7 and the twins were four yo. There was no Medicaid or other means of help other than family, friends and churches. The children were divided up between an aunt, an older brother (18 yo) who had just married and some good-hearted friends. Gardens were very important back then, often the only means of surviving. Daddy said they dug up roots and hunted to supplement their diets, but he often went hungry. I never remember a time that he didn’t plant a huge garden and worked two jobs to support our family. I think he remembered how he grew up and didn’t want us to suffer as he did. He grew corn, lots of it and tried different varieties every year but he liked silver queen and always grew lots of it. He tried growing various varieties of vegetables other than the standard corn, beans, potatoes, squash. He grew broccoli and cauliflower, and many other less grown vegetables. When he came home from work, he headed for the garden and worked in it until dark. We children had our orders to hoe the garden while he was gone and I hated it. Now, I enjoy growing my own vegetables and working in the soil. Daddy passed suddenly in 2000 just a few days after reaching the age of 75. I remember him every time I look out my window at my own garden and sometimes think I see him bent over a tomato plant tying it up.
This post is now my favorite!!!!! I didn’t get to grow up living in one place so I love hearing stories about the generations of people who did!!!
Well said Tipper! Yes, Pap would have been so very proud to know that his garden is back in use for the entire family. What a beautiful way to carry on Pap’s legacy & to be able to continue it through you and Matt, Chitter, Chatter, Austin & the new grandbaby boys!
My parents always had two big gardens full of corn, beans and potatoes and many other vegetables. Mama canned so many green beans and froze so much corn that they had plenty to share with their grown children. Hubby and I have been planting a small garden for years also. We mostly grow tomatoes, an assortment of peppers, onions and garlic. I love corn, but it doesn’t do well here, mostly because we have too many squirrels. My hubby’s family always grew huge gardens. One would be all potatoes to feed their large family all year. His grandma canned the most delicious peppers in oil that made any sandwich special. I so wish I knew her recipe, but I never asked for it. I love being in the garden , but I didn’t always. I remember definitely complaining about weeding the corn as a kid. Still, I know that those gardens of our childhood had a big impact on us and the way we feel about growing food now. I am very happy for you, Tipper, that you get to enjoy the big garden and all the memories you have of your dad. Take care, God bless, and give your mama a big hug. PS- loved your live video yesterday.
I agree with what you wrote, I am the third generation of my family to own the property I live on, and if I live through tomorrow, my son will be the fourth generation. I am meeting with an attorney to deed it all over to him. The memories of my grandparents, my parents, and my wife and I raising my children and grandchildren on this property are worth more than any amount of money I could get by selling it. My son and I spent most of yesterday bush hogging and doing other things to take care of the fields on our property. I didn’t say anything to him but my mind was full of memories of my past life of living here. Every generation of us have always had a garden, except for me, these gardens provided most of the food we ate, very little food was bought at a grocery store.
Tipper and Matt your corn garden looks amazing! I know you are on cloud nine! You are right it’s a wonderful feeling you get inside waiting in anticipation of what’s in store! We live here in central Pennsylvania and we have been married 46 yrs come Tuesday the 20th! Anyway I love the feeling you get when my wife cans of freezes or dehydrates food for our family! I help her out too! We are both retired now and enjoying life and are grateful for what we have been blessed with! I pray for our garden that the good Lord blesses it with bounty and the same for you and Matt! May the Lord bless your gardens in a mighty way!
I’m so happy for you Tipper. I can see your happiness in your face and of course your writing. I hope you have a bumper crop!
That is a beautiful story. I hope the “big garden “ produces well for you this year.
Tipper, that’s a BLUE RIBBON PRIZE WINNER EAR OF SILVER QUEEN CORN PAP WAS PROUD TO SHOW OFF and so would any gardener!!!! I mean there’s not much to discuss and the proof is in the beautiful ear of corn! Many talk the talk but few can walk the walk!!!! I’m not so sure Pap doesn’t see from heaven. People think eternity is upon death and I know that I know eternity begins before we are even born. It’s always been and will always be… There are many things we just don’t know about heavenly things. And there are NO COINCIDENCES in my opinion. It’s all meant to be somehow…. Much love and many blessings to your family whether in the holler or wherever they may roam!!!! Here’s to you, Pap! A mighty fine gentleman if I do say so myself! (hoists coffee cup and has swig.) Much love in Jesus!
I understand your heartwarming generational gardening story. My grandparents and great grandparents and many before them have all been gardeners. What makes me happy is that as my husband and I continue the tradition I can also use the same canning jars that belonged to my grandmothers to preserve what we grow. I often think about them and what their life was like as I put up what we grow.
He knows
Everything about this post just brings such joy. The rebirth of Pap’s garden, continuing to feed his wife, children, grandchildren and later his great grandchildren, and Austin and Corie now living in their uncle’s home, right next to you, Matt, Katie, and Granny–and then the birth of your first grandchild, little Ira; there is nothing better than what your people set forth generations ago, all the lessons and skills you’ve all passed down to each other. There is nothing, nothing better than this. God love you all.
I love to plant and work in our garden. We have already dug beautiful red potatoes, what a delight to eat, our heading onions are ready to pull, dewberries were here by the gross, I taught two ladies how easy it is to make freezer jam out of them, our tame blackberries are beginning to ripen. God gave us the ability to do these things and to feed ourselves with clean food, I’m so thankful I was raised with parents that taught me how to be self sustainable.
Blessings to all
You have the life I long for, but that wasn’t God’s plan. My husband is in the ministry and we have moved so much. We moved from Florida to New Brunswick, Canada over 20 years ago and since then.. we have moved many times. I long for that place to just put down roots and stay until I grow old. That just isn’t on the cards for me, but I sure enjoy watching ya’ll and what ya’ll do.
One day in Heaven, I hope to have a cabin in the woods with a garden and a creek nearby. And to have my family all around. Until then.. I will watch your piece of Heaven.
It is so exciting to see your corn getting in the ground and other stuff too.