It’s Tradition

Thankful for the abundance of food produced and provided by this garden

Our garden spot has been very productive for more than 35 years. In 1971 we moved to the land that we purchased as a homestead sale and developed it. We cleared a spot among a heavily wooded area of tall spruce trees and poplars, and moved a mobile home on to it. Later, we exchanged it for a modular home in which we lived for 25 years. At the same time, we landscaped the area around the house and developed a garden. Despite adding sand and topsoil to the grey wooded soil, the garden was disappointing in that it would stay moist and the weeds would not die after hoeing them. Chickweed thrived and was the bane of our life.

We decided to develop a garden in a new area with a gentle, south-facing slope and shelter from the west. It was fenced, and sand, manure and fertilizer were added to it. The area had been the site of a brush pile so there was a little extra topsoil to start with.

By this time, our boys were 10 and 12 years of age, and had huge appetites.

As soon as we started planting in this spot it became a productive garden. We grew and froze a lot of peas and beans for winter, as well as making pickles from beets and onions. Potatoes, carrots, onions and parsnips were harvested and stored for the winter as well. I also planted cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage— until I became tired of fighting with root maggots and cabbage white butterflies.

We donated vegetables to our local church suppers in fall, and later on to the local food bank, as well as giving onions to the legion for their steak suppers. One year, I even won a trophy at the local fair for earning the most points in the vegetable and fruit category.

Later on, we planted Evans and Nanking cherry trees, and saskatoon and raspberry bushes, as well as rhubarb and asparagus, at the west end of the garden.

Fresh asparagus was a real treat to have in the spring, except the ants thought so, too! They have almost decimated the plants despite all kinds of effort to eliminate them.

Evans cherries have been picked and pitted to make pies— to which peaches were added to take away some of the tartness. These pies, as well as rhubarb and saskatoon pies, have found their way to our church bake sales. The raspberries were made into jam and sometimes I also combined them with saskatoons and rhubarb.

My husband was fond of picking the huckleberries located about an hour’s drive west of our place; these were combined with apples, rhubarb, raspberries and strawberries to make bumbleberry pies. These became our grandchildren’s favourites. Nanking cherries have also been made into award-winning jelly.

We more or less had to “steal”

our own saskatoons from the bushes while they were still red, before the birds ate them. The birds, especially cedar waxwings, would scold us for picking them. We tried using deterrents such as mesh, owls and aluminum pie plates placed in the garden to no avail, so I place the saskatoons on cookie sheets to finish ripening before freezing them.

LASTING LEGACY

In later years, we subdivided our land and gave each of our sons 10 acres, then sold our house and 12 acres and moved to town. We kept the rest of the land and rented it out for pasture, keeping our garden.

One year, the cows grazing around the garden broke down the fence while we were on vacation. They broke branches off the cherry trees, and trampled some of the garden. After this episode we placed a solar-powered electric fence around the garden; it helped deter the domestic animals from invading the garden, until recently.

During a recent dry year, the calves were vying for greener pastures around the inside of the garden and broke in, in spite of the electric fence. They helped themselves to beans, beets and onions. The onions did not appeal to their palates, so they nibbled on them and dropped them on the ground. We built a cage around the beets with posts and chicken wire, but the beet tops were still nibbled on by the calves and wild deer. I did manage to retrieve enough beets to make borscht and gave some away in exchange for apples. After being trampled, some potatoes were exposed to the sun, so we had to pick them up before they turned green.

Every year, we have a bumper crop of everlasting zucchini that I bake with onions, celery and tomatoes. I stuff the larger ones with hamburger, rice and cheese. By the end of summer we are not sorry to relinquish them to the frost, but not before giving a lot away to friends, family, neighbours and the food bank. In return, we have received cucumbers from our son and neighbour. I have also made marmalade and chocolate cakes from the zucchini.

By last year, the ground had become very hard, so we broke it down and added dirt, sand and manure to it and worked it down with a rotovator. As a result, the lush growth of stinkweed got away from us after the rains. I agree with my son, too bad the calves don’t eat stinkweed!

At least in the last few years the grasshoppers have not invaded the garden and we have dug our carrots up before coyotes found them, and before the calves trampled them. Some years, late frosts nip our beans in spring and occasionally in fall.

Gardening has been passed down as a pastime in our family; with one son and a granddaughter enjoying it, as did my in-laws.

All in all, despite the challenges, we are very thankful for the abundance of food our garden has produced over the years. ■

Miriam’s family garden has provided a bounty of fruits and vegetables over the years—including some award-winning produce!