This afternoon (after an all-nighter of storms), I ventured out to the vegetable plot to be surprised by tomato blossoms! It seems that the torrential rains are agreeable with the growth of the plants. The plants have been in the ground for a couple of weeks and are truly looking sturdy but to find the blooms made my day. Seeing the tomato blooms and the healthy looking row of potatoes made me think of Pop and his plants and of "grubbling".
Back on the farm, Pop planted nigh on forty acres with assorted vegetables. He usually had fresh sweet corn, tomatoes and beans by mid April and I can remember him "grubbling" for the tiny, new potatoes so we could have a special treat to go with the Easter ham! He had vegetables ready before most other folks were tilling their ground. Seeds were started in "hotbeds" by the end of January so the plants were ready at the first warm day. If a late freeze (Mom called those "Easter freezes") hit the area, the plants were covered with black plastic pots then plowed under with about a six inch deep layer of dirt. After the threat passed, it was an easy task to find the pot, pull it out from the dirt and leave behind the saved plant. He kept thousands of the pots in an old shed just for this purpose. This method allowed for early vegetables!
Now I will get a little off topic (from tomato blossoms)! Even though the potatoes were not quite ready to be fully dug by Easter, he always managed to grubble enough for a "mess". There is a word that you do not hear often nowadays! Grubble! (For the longest time, it never occurred to me that the word meant anything other than digging potatoes!) Grubble, by the way, means to fumble around in the dark. He used it to refer to digging with his hands under a large potato plant to find a few hen's egg sized potatoes which is sort of like fumbling around in the dark! Later, the old hand plow (that had, at one time, been pulled by a mule) was hitched to the back of the tractor. While he drove the tractor, one of the kids held the plow upright with the point just at the right angle to dig deep enough to upend the potato plants. Then, we all would go through the soft dirt with our hands and toss the potatoes down in the furrow. Afterward, buckets and bushels were filled to be hauled to the old truck. This was back when kids actually helped out around the place. We all had chores to do and were expected to do them without grumbling. Life was great. Too bad this does not happen in this day and age.
Back to the small scale garden that flanks the east side of the house. Pop probably looks down from Heaven and cringes at my feeble attempts. My dozens of plants vs his thousands, most likely does not seem worth the effort but it keeps us in fresh veggies and I am able to can (or freeze) enough to last most of the winter. Looky, Pop! My tomatoes look great! And have blooms! Not quite as early as yours were but still looking promising. I think I will grubble for some potatoes for Easter dinner!
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