April 17th

April 17th is my grandmother's birthday. Nanny was born in 1888 and she lived to be 101 years old. She was still hoeing in her garden and making pecan pies well into her 90s. I hope I got that DNA!

April 17th is also the date that I use as the "magic planting day"; when we think it is safe to plant our spring vegetable garden. We typically don't have to worry about frost in late April and that is important to the vegetables.

So, yesterday, David and I bought our tomato plants - Better Boys and Romas. We are still looking for tommy toes (cherry tomatoes). We bought cucumbers, a variety of peppers, a few herbs and 1 eggplant.

We have a fairly small garden plot, so we will set out our plants there and in various places around the house. These plants will need at least 6 hours of sun and easy watering by hose, so that has alot to do with where we can plant.

Currently, in our garden plot, we have lettuce and onions growing. Last night, we pulled several onions and cut a mess of lettuce to make Mama Crowder's Wilted Lettuce and Onions for supper (see March blogpost). A mess of lettuce is kind of an unknown quantity, but how ever much you cut from the garden, it will shrink ALOT when it is wilting in the frying pan!

The smell of fresh spring onions and lettuce cooking in the kitchen brought back all kinds of memories of Mama Crowder and Granddaddy's house. We always had alot of fun there. One of our favorite games to play at Mama Crowder's was 'chicken'. She would sweep up the kitchen floor (it was immaculate); all the grandchildren would get down on the floor and pretend we were chickens. Mama Crowder would have a bowl of candy corn and broadcast it around on the floor like it was chicken feed. All the while she was calling "chick chick chick chick chicken!" She would be laughing out loud and all the grandchildren would be scrambling about clucking and 'pecking' the candy corn. It was so funny at the time and so funny to remember that in Lattimore in the 60s, people sort of had to make up their own fun and games. I hope I got that DNA too.

Well, last night for dinner, we had Wilted Lettuce and Onions. I did make it with olive oil instead of bacon grease and it was great. I also used buttercrunch, arugula and mesclun lettuce mixed together and that was great. We had blackeyed peas with Rotel Salsa and cornbread with real butter. It was a perfect Saturday night meal for David and me.

Today, we tilled up our garden area and by tomorrow morning, all the vegetables and herbs will be in the ground. And I have spent a weekend grateful to have memories of two inspiring grandmothers.