Gardening: A Sense of Accomplishment

Gardening: A Sense of Accomplishment 

Darrel L. Hammon

The beginnings of a garden

When people ask what some of my hobbies are, I include gardening, not that I am the best gardener in the world. Rather, I enjoy planting things and watching them grow--the ultimate sense of accomplishment—the planting of the seeds, watching the seedlings sprout through the fine dirt, the continual growing and leafing out, the actual harvesting and then canning/bottling of the fruits and vegetables, and then leaning back with satisfaction that you have accomplished something, watched something come to fruition from beginning to the end.

The growing garden

This summer has been one of those great summers of gardening. Anna Rose and Christiaan bought a home in Pleasant Grove and assigned me the garden. “Make it grow” was the only admonition. So, we made it grow—lots of hoeing, weeding, watering, etc. And the outcome was phenomenal!

The "catch" of the day

Emiline and William helped me quite a bit although Emiline wasn't totally excited about the worms and the grasshoppers.Plus, keeping a hat on William was more than a task. He hates them, but his mother said he had to wear one when he was outside.

William and his hat

The peas came first. 

Some of the pea pods

Emiline and I planted them too close, and we failed to stake them so they could grow up. So, they became a tangled mess. But peas are peas, and they are delicious! Our favorite, like many of you, is new peas and new red potatoes floating in a yummy white sauce.

the art of shelling peas

I made "pea boats" like my dad showed me. You carefully, squeeze out all of the peas, making sure you keep the ends in tack. Then, you find a small stick and place it gently in the middle, widening it some so it looks like a boat. Of course, you have to then try it out as you water the water, watching the boat trying to maneuver the hazards of rows.

Pea boats--all aboard!

We made some good hauls on a few days. 

Another catch of the day

Emiline wanted to hoist the beets to show them off. They were delicious! We ate some of them fresh, and we bottled a few for winter.

Emiline and her beets

Although we didn't plant much corn, it produced quite a bit. Of course, most of the corn we ate at dinners.We trundled out, picked a few ears, shucked them on the spot, raced to the house, and placed them in a pot of already boiling water--a must if you want to eat fresh corn on the cob.

Cutting the corn from the cob after it has been blanched

The rest we blanched and placed in storage bags for the freezer.

Blanching and bagging it

We bought some peaches in Washington on our way back from Hailey and Joe's. Plus we gleaned some from an orchard just up the hill.

Peaches gleaned from an orchard

The results:  

Peach pie.....

My first peach pie--ever

Peach jam.....

Peach jam

Bottled peaches.....

Bottled peaches

Plus, we scored some plums from a little place down the street where people place their excess garden stuffs. The result: yummy jam.

Plum jam

Now, as all this sits on shelves, in our freezer, and in our storage, we look forward to enjoying our garden all winter long.