For a lot of you, growing a garden is, and has been an extension of your life. I know as far back as I can remember, my grandfather ALWAYS had a garden. When speaking of this it takes me back to how much I enjoyed eating with Grannie and Granddaddy. Good gracious, those two could put some good groceries on the table.
Granddaddy made the best pork and rice I’ve ever tasted, and my mother still talks about it from time to time. No one ever learned just how he made it, and even Grannie used to tell us after Granddaddy’s passing, that he never let her in on it either.
So, it’s lost forever, and what a shame. Quickly, Grannie Margaret’s best dish…macaroni and cheese, and boy, was it good. She most always had black-eyed peas with this, and man, I’d just pile those peas over her mac and cheese, and it was always so good.
There’s something about that pot liquor off those peas that’s so good anyway, but that juice mixed in with the melted cheeses in the macaroni was absolutely delicious. Ah, I can taste it now!
My Dad always had a garden. Tomatoes were his favorite to grow and eat, and I gotta say that they’re high on our list of vegetables too. When it came to his peas, shoot, he didn’t plant em, he just scattered them all over at the end of his orange grove, and let them come up as “volunteers.” This worked well for them.
So Deb and I both grew up around gardening. Her Daddy was a farmer as well, and they raised most all they ate growing up…even their meat.
In a confession to you guys, for the longest time Deb and I didn’t raise a garden, except for a few occasions. We were busy with the kids, starting a business, and this kept us both tied up basically from daylight to cain’t!
But looking back, I’m not sure we’d change much of anything. It was tough, hard times, but in the end it was all a rewarding experience, and in hindsight, some of the happiest times we had.
As a youngster I always heard the phrase “the good old days.” Now at the tender, YOUNG age of 55, I too have come to embrace such ideology. Deb says my appreciation for the term “the good old days” is simply because…I’m an old fart!” I tell her, “It takes one to know one!” Her response, “You betcha!” At least she ain’t in denial, huh?
The main thing once again that “spurred our interest” in gardening was probably what got so many other people involved in it again as well…our politicians and their destruction of our economy. There’s no need to blame capitalism, this is a myth.
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‘Ridin Out The Recession With Dub and Deb in “Miz Judi’s Kitchen’!
Note to Readers: There are a few things that Dub doesn’t know but one thing he does know is that the word ‘Riding’ (as in Riding Out the Recession) is spelled with a ‘g’ at the end. But Dub not only walks the walk, but speaks like he is: down home, true blue, and plain speakin’ country folk.
Dub and Deb are both native Floridians, live in Central Florida, and run a small business as well. They have five children, and seven grandchildren.
Both love to cook, love to laugh, grow a garden, and generally try to “aggravate” most anyone around them basically…all in good fun, of course!
