Thursday, August 21, 2008

Frugal Friday - My Grandpa's Garden

I wasn’t sure I wanted to write this post. My grandpa has been gone over 3 years now and it is still so hard to talk about him. But it is garden season and this is Frugal Friday, so I wanted to talk about my grandpa’s garden. First of all, my grandpa loved to farm. He never actually got the privilege of owning his own farm. He rented some land for a while. He worked for other farmers, but he always grew a big garden. When I was younger I never appreciated working in the garden. He would beg me to go out with him and just look at his tomatoes. I would go but I never understood the satisfaction of growing something yourself. He knew how satisfying it was. I may have mentioned this before, but my grandmother is an amazing cook. She is an old fashioned southern cook. My grandpa would always grow turnip greens in his garden just so my grandma could cook them with oil and vinegar. He grew cucumbers and liked to slice them and put them in water and add some salt to them. He loved his bacon and tomato sandwiches with some corn on the cob on the side. He just enjoyed the whole gardening process. Anytime we went somewhere, he would take the long, scenic route if possible. He would point out every field to me and say, “Gret, aren’t those beans beautiful?”

I just wish that I had gone outside with him more and learned more about how he did garden. He eventually had to stop gardening when he got older and it was too much work for him.

Now I think how proud he would be that I am growing my own tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchini (that got eaten up by squash bugs). He would be glad that I am getting my hands dirty.

I just want to say that now I think those beans are beautiful and I thank God for everyday that He gave me with my grandpa.

For more Frugal Friday topics, please see Biblical Womanhood. You can also see my other Frugal Friday post over at Today's Daily Dose.

5 comments:

  1. Great post. I so agree. My parents are still alive and still have a large garden. We always had to work in the garden growing up and I hated it. I wish I had paid better attention and learned more. Now I live half way across the country and can't learn all their gardening tricks as easily. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. What a sweet post about your grandpa, Gretchen. Made me cry.

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  3. Thanks for the GREAT post! And yes even I cried!

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  4. So true! :) What a wonderful post.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog!
    Blessings,
    Michele :)

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  5. Thank you so much for this story! I am literally in tears because this reminds me so much of my grandfather. He also past away about 3 years ago at the age of 85. I grew up with my grandparents and always felt such an age gap...I didn't think that we had much in common. Now with two children of my own and five acres, I am struggling to master the art of gardening and preserving. He was proud to know that we were "putting out" a garden and it always makes me feel very close to him. Thank you again for sharing!

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