Last night we had our bedding sweet potato class. Whew what a crowd! Stacy White from UK extension leads us in this class. We now have 4 4×4 beds of sweet potatoes that will hopefully provide us with tons of slips.
So I talked to Junior Snelson about the Tick Beans. He got them from a neighbor who goes by Cotton Bull(doesn’t know his real name) he’s in his 80’s. Cotton says he’s grown them all his life. So we assume that they were being grown in his family longer. Which means we think it’s safe to say they are Heritage seeds. Cotton and Junior live in Tazewell, Tn. Junior’s been growing the Tick Beans for about 8 yrs now.
Last night Junior and his wife Jean brought some heritage sweet Potatoes to grow as well. They are from a 90ish yr old woman Mary Seals who’s been growing them all her life too. She lives in Sneedville, tn which is Hancock co.. They are called Old Timey White.
In the greenhouse I started for the 3rd yr. Tomatoes I call Shawn Peter’s Dad’s Seedless Tomato. These are tomatoes that Shawn says his Dad always grew. His dad died several yrs ago now. They got the seeds out of the freezer 4yrs ago and they took off. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of some of the plants Shawn got started.
Other reports here are that we got the potatoes planted Friday. We had a nice day for it and a great turnout. Including Bev’s grandchildren who are quite young but did a great job.
Lastly I’ve got to share Sunday’s story. Well the story really begins last spring when I said at the usual monday mtg that I had to go to Knoxville and would stop at the Knoxville Seed co. for some supplies and did anyone have any seed requests. Dr. J wanted some Purple Hulled Peas. They had them and he planted them in the Southern Bean garden last spring. Sometime in the summer he said let the people know the purple hulled peas are ready. Later when I was ready to pick them I asked him what he does with them. He said he liked to cook them up with some ham, onions, salt and pepper. Then put them in the freezer. I followed his advice. So back to Sunday after church my husband said he was going to Kroger’s what did we need. We have to drive separately as I have to go early to choir practice. I said well whatever you want for dinner. He came home with fresh fish. I asked what did he want with that. Well some vegetables. I said we’ve got frozen tick beans, canned beans, frozen corn and frozen purple hulled peas. He wanted the Purple hulled peas mixed with the corn. When it was ready we dug in he said, “These are our vegetable’s?” Sadly what ya all can’t hear is the great happiness in his tone of voice that they were sooooo gooood and our own homegrown stuff.
Potato planting 3/21/14
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