I Love Gardening

I really enjoy gardening. It is a lot of hard work, but is very satisfying to put seeds in the ground and see the plants come up, mature and bear fruit. How in the world the red clay that I have for soil grows cucumbers, squash, peppers, tomatoes, okra, green beans, etc. is beyond me, but it does, and the produce is delicious, especially the green beans. I love eating them right off the vine—they are almost sweet.

Last year, I planted our first real garden in many years, and had some reasonable success. My son, David helped a lot, and we decided to try again this year. We put the garden in on April 17, but then we did not have any appreciable rain for almost 4 weeks. Even with irrigation, we lost some of the new plants that we set out, and the corn had to be replanted because it got such a poor start. But even with this poor start, we started getting some squash and cucumbers out of the garden about a week ago. The green beans started coming in a few days ago. We cooked up our first serving last Thursday. Hopefully the tomatoes will start to come in shortly. This year we planted three rows of them—almost 150 plants!We lost several plants last year, so we wanted to be sure to have enough this year.We should have tons of tomatoes to share with friends and family. I can just taste spaghetti sauce like my mom used to make!

My parents always had a garden as I was growing up, and they still do even though Dad is 87 and my Mom is 86. So I grew up working in a garden for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember it being hard work, it was just something that you did, and the produce that you got out of it was well worth the effort. I guess it is like anything else in life, the more effort that you put into something, the more you get out of it, and whether it is work or not is a matter of perspective. So, if you find yourself in North Raleigh any time this summer, give us a call and we would love to load you up with some fresh cucumbers and squash and whatever else is coming in at the time!

My Mom's Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 –12 oz cans water
• 1 cup diced green pepper
• tsp oregano
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 2 quarts of tomatoes
• 2 lbs hamburger
• 2 cloves of garlic-minced
• 1 stick pepperoni
• 12 oz can tomato paste(sliced)

• Sauté onions, green pepper, celery and garlic in olive oil until soft.
• Heat tomatoes, tomato paste and water in pot.
• Add sautéed mixture, oregano and salt to pot and heat for 30 minutes.
• Brown and crumble hamburger and add to tomato mixture.
• Add sliced pepperoni.
• Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 2-3 hours.

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