“I’m going down to the garden!”
That was a favorite phrase for my mother-in-law, Sandra, especially early in the morning. She loved to head to her garden at Sea Call Farm to plant, weed and cultivate. She’d often get up at sunrise, eat a little snack, don her old sneakers and drive to the garden to check on her plants and veggies. She took a lot of pleasure in planning the layout of her 20’ x 20’ plot, ordering seeds and beginning anew each spring. She loved heirloom seeds and focused on non GMO and organic seeds and practices. She especially enjoyed planting corn and looked forward to fresh corn on the cob for dinner right after picking. It was a point of pride for her to bring home her own corn. She was the only person I’ve known that actually loved to weed! It brought her a sense of order and organization that she thrived on.
Sandra’s husband Steve was instrumental in the prep work to get the soil ready for planting, and he was keen on planting tomatoes. In his view – the bigger, the better! He loved Big Boy and Early Girl varieties, and he loved picking both ripe tomatoes and green tomatoes. He’d wrap the green tomatoes in newspaper or place them in a brown paper bag to allow them to ripen. Sandy and Steve were generous with their bountiful tomato crop and shared their haul with friends and family each summer and fall. Steve loved his sliced tomatoes chilled (it was a running family joke that the tomatoes must be COLD).
Both Sandra and Steve have passed away (Sandra in August 2020 and Steve in February 2021). Last May, we promised Sandra that we’d help with her garden. We got a late start due to the chilly and damp weather, but we planted by mid-June. Sandra gave us a list of the items she’d like to plant and drew a diagram of the locations for each crop. We fulfilled her wishes and tended to the garden all summer. Sandra was able to check out the garden with us a few times, but as her illness progressed, she stayed close to home. She was thrilled when we brought her fresh green beans, cherry tomatoes, green and red peppers, shallots, basil and parsley.
Steve was able to enjoy his beloved tomatoes and a nice batch of corn on the cob. I cooked down a huge batch of tomatoes to make sauce and presented him with a quart jar of homegrown, homemade pasta sauce. He was a big fan of spaghetti and meatballs and it was nice to share tomatoes with him as he’d done so many times for us. He was a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy, and often raised his own potatoes at the garden, too. It was really fun to go there with him and pull those potatoes out of the sandy soil!
I grew up on a small farm upon which my parents maintained a huge garden for many, many years. They were both teachers, so gardening was a natural fit for keeping busy while enjoying summers off (plus it really helped us maintain a reasonable food budget). I recall my Dad sitting with a yellow legal pad, drawing diagrams for the garden layout and making lists for orders from Burpee’s Seeds. My folks would start many of the plants indoors in the sunny laundry room near the kitchen (it was more of a large storage room with a washer and dryer in it, so there was plenty of space for trays of seedlings and a few grow lights). My Mom took on a large portion of the planting and weeding alongside my Dad, but it was he who really enjoyed pouring over seed catalogs, making selections and mailing in his orders. It was definitely a family project every year to prep the soil, plant seeds and transplant seedlings, weed and water, and ultimately enjoy the harvest. Gardening is in my blood.
I lapsed with gardening quite a bit over the years, but enjoyed helping Sandy and Steve with their garden when we’d visit. Now, my husband Bill and I are full time Orleans residents, and our foray back into gardening last summer was very meaningful and fun for us. We helped Sandy and Steve, we met wonderful people at Sea Call Farm, and it felt great to work at the garden and enjoy lots of fresh produce.
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