Farm crops back in my time and in that part of the country were corn, oats, rye, wheat, red clover, and blue grass pasture. I remember that timothy hay was another kind of feed for either horses or cows but can't remember which for the life of me. Sometimes after the corn was shucked or if the crop was poor because of bad weather conditions, it was cut with a corn knife and shocked into little bunches and tied together and used in winter for livestock food. Another source of livestock food was to pitch the corn stalks into the silo. It would go through a process and turn into silage which was cattle feed. I always liked to smell it—it had a sort of pungent "perfume"! When it came time to thrash the grains it was done by a farmer who lived about two miles from us. When he started out from his place to go to various farms we could hear the thrasher start and chug chug LOUD all the way up our way.
Besides field crops and the usual garden veggies (radishes, onions, green beans, peas, lettuce, carrots, watermelons, musk melons, sweet corn, cucumbers) we had a rhubarb patch, horse-radish, a mulberry grove, purple and white berries (and always had a strawberry patch each year), a grape arbor with purple and white grapes, a potato patch and an orchard (early, summer, and late varieties of apples; cherries; peaches; blackberries; and a boysenberries). Guess that’s about all I can think of…
Dad always raised early and late potatoes as we depended on potatoes to eat about everyday, so if one crop failed there was a better chance of making sure that we'd have taters! And onions--we had them by the bushel too. I remember when we kids had to hoe the little bitsy onion seedlings with a little hand hoe--down on our hands and knees or pull weeds that were too close to get with the hoe. I almost forgot cabbage. We had lots and lots of cabbage, and mom made kraut in 5 or 10 gallon crocks. She also had a pickle recipe to make mustard pickle in a big stone crock. Oh yes: And mom always raised dill and sage in the garden.
My first experience in gardening was when I was about seven or so. I had a little garden patch of my own beside the fence. For the life of me I can't remember what I planted, but I suspect it was lots of lettuce. I just thought of peppers too; just the ordinary green bell kind.
We had lots of wild gooseberries in the timber. That was an annual experience. Our neighbors didn't have timber or gooseberries, so several of us would load up in the big wagon very early in the morning with our buckets and flour sacks and jugs of water. Women and girls wore sunbonnets and boys and dads their straw hats and away we went. Some had to stay home to chore and get dinner. I recall once when I was "elected" to stay and get dinner. I decided to make Goulash. It called for macaroni, so I put the macaroni in a pan of cold water and set it on the stove to cook. And cook it did: into a gooey mess. I think we ended up having potatoes and some garden sass of some kind.
I’ve wondered if any one else in the world thought of using the big onion tops for ''straws" to drink through. Us kids did. If we got too wild like blowing through them instead, that would end for sure and certain. Don't think I mentioned tomatoes, but of course that was one of our main and most popular vegetables (or fruit?).
Canning season is another story. It was something else at our house. There were very few pint jars, mostly quart and half-gallon ones, and a lot of them to fill.
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