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| Kathy, Dad and Terry in Dad's vegetable garden |
I
love this photo partly because my father and siblings all look so adorable but
also because it clearly shows how much pleasure and pride my father took in his
vegetable garden. Practically the first thing Mom wrote about after they
purchased their first home on Elsie Avenue in San Leandro is the fact that Dad
was outside working on planting a vegetable garden. This turned out to be a
life long endeavor. Years later when I was young I remember how Dad would come
home from work, covered in white dust from the sheetrock he’d been hanging all
day. He would make a mess of washing up at the kitchen sink. Then he would turn
around, give my mother a big hug and a sloppy kiss.
Typically,
he would take a nap before dinner, then after dinner, he’d be out working in his
garden. We had an apple, apricot, plum, two orange trees and a walnut tree that
all produced fruit and nuts. For many years there were blackberry vines and a
few raspberries. Dad always planted a large area with corn, lots of tomatoes, multiple
types of squash – all of which I hated, cucumbers, and beans. He also planted potatoes
and onions which he stored in a dark shed after harvesting and they lasted that
way for months. We also had rhubarb and artichoke plants. In later years, after
I’d left home, he grew fava beans.
Prepping
the soil, doing the planting and watering and tending all this was a big,
on-going job. Most of the work was done by Dad but Mom and I sometimes helped
with the planting and Terry and I were often charged with watering and
harvesting. Throughout the summer mom did a LOT of canning and freezing to
store the proceeds to last through winter – nothing better than home-grown corn
from our freezer in December. Everyone was involved with pie making and fruit
canning – Dad or Terry would pick the fruit, Mom would prepare it, Kathy or I
would make the dough and assemble the pies which Mom would bake, and of course, we all enjoyed eating them.
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