A thought went through my mind this morning and aside from revealing that there is some activity happening between these wrinkled old fuzzy ears that don’t work all that well, I decided to write a post about normal life here in the country for a change. Been too much discussion on the problems in the world lately and I have to admit I’ve been caught up in it. If you’ve been seeing my posts lately, I’m sure you’ll agree.

For one thing, the oppressors of this world probably enjoy seeing all of us folks stewing over the problems they create for us, so I doubt they’d enjoy a lighter spirited post that might lift folks’ mood somewhat, but there is life outside the Ukraine and Palestine. That doesn’t mean we should stop praying for those folks though.

Here in the Ozarks, where God has specially blessed our world. Instead of war, droughts, heat waves, volcanoes, landslides, and floods, we’ve been blessed, at least for this year. We’re getting plenty of rain but not too much, and that’s sort of unusual in mid-July. So, let’s talk garden…

My garden has gone ballistic this year, there are tomatoes bigger than softballs, and my peas are going nuts. I grow southern field peas, specifically a variety called brown crowders – my favorite. You can cook up a “mess” of those little guys and throw in a chopped onion and a few pods of sliced okra with about three slices of cut-up bacon and some beef stock, and in a couple of hours you’ll have a bowl of peas that have caused men to propose marriage over. Oh, I have to wait a week or so for my okra to catch up – it’s just now starting to bloom.

I’ve had friends when I lived south of Dallas who were of Czech descent, and they grew turnip greens, but they only kept the turnips and threw the greens out to the cows. I was aghast when I saw the farmer and his wife throwing perfectly good (and delectable) greens over the fence. I told them those greens were among the most wonderful foods this side of Heaven, and insisted they cook a pot of them up and try them – of course with the turnips included, which only adds to the delightful taste. They cooked some, and to my shock, they didn’t seem to like them as much as just the turnips alone. That set me to wondering what other weirdness had been bred into folks of Eastern European descent, but I guess to each his own.

My turnip greens have matured, and the row needs to be replanted, they grow fast and will make new batches until heavy frost, so I try to keep some in progress. Only problem is that we get kind of burned out on them and let them grow to maturity when they get tough with a bit stronger taste – still delicious, but the new fresh ones are best, we call them tender greens, actually better when they are very young before the turnips start growing. I had a friend when I was in the Navy who said that if God had made anything better than turnip greens, He kept it for Himself, and if that’s true, Heaven’s going to have some primo food!

A lot of folks think I have some kind of green thumb, but I really don’t. I don’t use almanacs – which may or may not help I don’t know, but I do say a prayer for God’s blessing on my garden when I start planting and I usually have a decent crop – just a small backyard garden, but it keeps us in fresh produce through the summer and I even have enough to make several trips a month with cucumbers, tomatoes and squash for the local food bank. I don’t take any brown crowders though. Not because I’m greedy, but it’s just that people this far north don’t grow field peas, although they do good here, so nobody is used to eating them and maybe it’s an acquired taste or something.

As always, I’ve planted way more cucumbers than we need, but there are folks who can use them. This year I planted a strain called munchers, they didn’t come up as fast as I thought they should have, so I replanted the same row with another variety and, you guessed it, the munchers took longer and so came up with the other ones so now I have a crowded cucumber fence, but it’s all good.

Squash are doing their normal thing, but those pesky squash bugs are bad here. I usually get one or two good pickings of zucchini before the bugs get them. The yellow crooked neck squashes seem to last a little longer. There are a few things you can do to battle those bugs, but I just don’t have time.

If you haven’t tried growing a garden, I suggest you give it a shot. Of course, most of the folks who read these posts live in cities and aren’t able to enjoy gardening. Maybe y’all can enjoy reading about it anyways. It’s a therapeutic exercise and very enjoyable. Plus, you get the added benefit of fresh produce through the summer. In fact, there are varieties of squash that keep well on into the winter.

God bless all – try and keep a positive outlook in this old world of trouble and watch those radishes grow if you can.

MK