The Muscadine Flu

A sad little man named McFrain,
Coined a riddle he couldn’t explain.
It had something to do,
With the Muscadine Flu,
Which of course, is what left him insane.

Of course there is no such thing as Muscadine Flu, but doesn’t it roll off the tongue nicely?

I grew up with lots and lots of muscadines in the back yard. Mom made juice and jelly with them and I miss having access to things like that. When the garden was resized years ago…the muscadines were dug up and are now gone away.

My mom didn’t just plant a garden, she designed it. The garden was a very large square made up of four smaller squares of planting area. Each square was divided by a pathway leading to a central spot where muscadine grape vines hedged a grassy circle. Each square was larger than most gardens I see around this area and she and dad made use of every inch. Planting rows and rows of green beans, peas, carrots, onions, green peppers, tons of tomatoes (in a variety of colors), an entire section of corn and another almost entirely of potatoes. There were cucumbers and dill, cantaloupe, strawberries, lettuce, cabbage, beets, radishes and often these were planted among flowers to brighten the whole thing up a bit. I especially remember the marigolds planted in alternating spots in the cabbage row. I really loved the way they looked together.

You can imagine how I long to be involved in gardening, but also feel a bit intimidated by it. I remind myself often that mom probably didn’t garden quite as much when we were smaller, and she had a lot of help. Dad is a good gardener and was available to fertilize with the manure from the barn, till up the garden and help with all the planting, weeding, picking and dead plant removal. Dad still uses half of that garden to grow corn and tomatoes, cantaloupe and whatever else he sets his mind to.

Mom also had the willing hands of her mother and sister if she needed them. With lots of little girls among that group to pick beans and peas, snap beans, pod peas, wash cucumbers and clean strawberries, there was always a large amount of canning and freezing that went on. I really hated picking…but I loved peeling back those pea pods and seeing those fat little peas in there. I ate a lot of them raw. They are so much better that way than once they are processed in any fashion. Peas are definitely meant to be sweet and crunchy…not soft and salted. I’m still learning to like them once they are cooked.

I really enjoyed making tomato juice too. Which, thankfully, dad has allowed me to do here in Tennessee by bringing bushels of tomatoes down to Becky and I to process. Juice for soups, tomatoes for salsa and spaghetti sauce…mmmm. I love it.

I did a little digging and replanting yesterday afternoon on the back porch. Nothing too complicated, I needed to put a houseplant into a larger container and while I was at it, I replanted some bulbs along the edge of the yard at the bottom of the hill, planted some seeds that Owen has been saving and put a few cilantro seeds into a little pot. I don’t know if any of it will grow, but it felt good to get my hands in that dirt. Owen had a blast running from me to Bobbie Jo, our neighbor who was also working in the dirt, and helping with all the planting and trimming and such. He brought me a small bouquet of white peonies from Bobbie Jo’s flower bed that she had cut for him. They are so fragrant and again, something mom had growing around the back yard in pink and white. I love their very round buds. something about that is just so perfect.