Bea Sias- LEAD
Logan County
As I sit here in the office looking out the window as a mist of rain is falling, very cloudy day and sort of cool type of a fall day.I think back to working in our Gardens. How hot it would be, and by 10:00 in the morning it was so hot it was time to go in the house until late in the evening. Some Gardeners worked a few more hours and some could not be in the heat very long.
But, the older gardeners were used to working in the field all day. As they were growing up, it was early in the morning after breakfast, stop for lunch, then back to the field until
time to quit for the day. They were raised this way, because if they didn’t work all day and grow the winter food, time was hard in the winter month.
All of our new Gardeners this year did a terrific job. I am really proud of them, they learned a lot, and also, how to can food, how to plant, and workshops were a great help to them. They shared a lot of their food with the Elderly, neighbors and family. I had one experienced gardener tell me he was going to plant one of his fields this year just to give to the disabled, elderly, and anyone else that wants fresh vegetables. His Dad always had a huge garden, in fact 3 large fields.
I have been in this job going on my 4th year and I have never had Gardeners more eagerly to farm and learn .
I believe and the gardeners do too, that the reason some vegetables did not produce as well as some did, it would be 95 degrees, then cloud up and pour the rain. This had a big effect on tomatoes.
But, we really had a good year. In August of 2015 we had produced over 19,000 pounds of produce, in 2016 we had produced over 31,000 pounds of produce. Big Ugly had a very good year.
Potatoes did quite well for a lot of gardeners, s well as cabbage and beans. A lot of canning and freezing was done along with other vegetables.
The gardeners with only a small piece of land, had a very productive garden, It is amazing what you can grow in a yard along the fence.
But, the weather is changing, cool in the morning, but nice and warm during the day. Nice weather to dig Potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, but leave your greens alone, the frost won’t hurt them.
Don’t forget to clean your tools with bleach and water, spray all the dirt off, dry real good, put in sun to dry and spray with something like WD-40, so they won’t rust and if any blight germs might be on them this will get rid of the germs.
We have been Blessed with good years of planting and reaping the Harvest.
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