Bountiful Harvest

My Grandparents are amazing! Grandma Judy & Grandpa Floyd raised a family of 1 girl and 4 boys on just one income. They planted a garden every year and raised chickens. I remember helping in the garden as a kid, picking and watering the fruits & veggies. I remember watching Grandma can vegetables and how neat the shed outside looked all lined with jars. Grandma always baked the best wheat bread with all kinds of nuts in it. She also made fruit leather and jerky that we got each year as Xmas presents. Both my Grandparents hunted yearly for deer. I remember my Grandpa skinning a buck as it hung from the rafters of their garage. Venison sausage was a great Xmas morning treat along with the homemade waffles and blackberry syrup they made for us.

Even though all their kids are grown and they just have the two of them to feed, they still plant a garden every year. Saturday I got to take my pick of all the ripe fruits & vegetables and ended up with an impressive amount of grapes, tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, green onions and cucumbers. I can't wait to add all these great organic ingredients to some new recipes!

More than anything, I think this trip to harvest home-grown food has solidified what I have been feeling for a while. I would love to someday have a home with enough land for a big garden, chickens and a goat. Maybe even a pig! It would be great to be able to trade or buy our meat, milk, honey and any produce we couldn't grow ourselves from local independent sources (like neighbors).

Anyway, thank you Grandma & Grandpa for all the fruits and veggies as well as the memories they bring back for me. You will be hearing about the experiments I try with them!