So, in early March I planted onion sets and lettuce seeds. This is something that always makes me think of Mama Crowder and growing up in Lattimore. Mama Crowder was my mother's mother. Nettie Nevada Spangler grew up being called Vada (which sounded like Vader). But, I always knew her as Mama Crowder. Her daily life was organized by the Bible and the Farmer's Almanac. I can still see her in church singing at the top of her lungs - VIC-TORYYY IN JES-US! What she didn't have in voice quality, she more than made up for in gusto!
Mama Crowder's garden would have made an engineer proud. She was meticulous, tidy, patient and worked the details every day. Of course, the Spanglers imigrated from Germany so it stands to reason that she had some German engineering DNA.
She worked that garden first thing in the morning with hat and long sleeves on. She worked that tough, red, rocky soil until it gave up and she would not tolerate a weed or rock. Then she hoed perfectly straight lines with the right height of soil for planting and furrow for not planting. Her onion sets were spaced exactly the same distance from each other and the soil was not too high up on the bulb. Her lettuce seeds were broadcast so that when the lettuce grew it looked like she had placed each seed in place. Then she TENDED her garden. Every day. Morning and evening. Like a clock.
When it came time to harvest lettuce and onions, she would get out early in the day before things got too hot and wilty. The smell of freshly pulled onions and crispy picked lettuce would send us into a tailspin. She washed MORE THAN ONCE to get all of the dirt off the plants, then tore the lettuce and sliced the onions tops and bottoms. To make perfect Wilted Lettuce, you gotta have the right frying pan (which is so complicated it will have to be another blog!) and bacon. Bacon is important to most of Mama Crowder's meals. She always said she liked Pig better than Cow.
Mama Crowder's Wilted Lettuce and Onions
You will need: Lettuce, Onions, Bacon and A Cast Iron Frying Pan
Early March - hoe, till, weed, plant lettuce seed and onion sets. Tend every day.
Early April - Pull onions and tear lettuce
November - Kill a hog and cure the bacon
You can buy these things at a grocery store but you'll miss half the the experience and alot of the taste. If you buy them at farmer's market you'll be a little closer to the real thing with the smell and the dirt and the freshness. Then again, if you have a FRIEND with a garden, sometimes they MAY LET YOU come help and give you a little of the harvest for your toil.
Preparation:
In the perfectly seasoned cast iron frying pan, fry bacon and reserve grease. Put a little grease into hot pan and add onions. Sizzle till about half done and add torn lettuce. This is very quick like stir frying - as lettuce wilts add salt, pepper and a little bit of vinegar. Serve with Hot Cornbread.
Mama Crowder never had any trouble finding people to share a meal. If you weren't already there 'helping' her in the garden, she might call you and say, "I'm fixing to make lettuce and onions for lunch if you can get here." We could get there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
