What got you intersted in gardening and tomatoes

[AZGardener]

Ever since I remember, my grandma's have been gardening and both had and still have beautiful gardens. I remember my grandma would pull peaches from the garden and whip up some peach ice cream, or tomatoes for fresh grilled cheeses. To me it was sooo neat to start from seed, take a plant from its start, then plant it, nurture it, and harvest a LOAD of fruit or veggies from it. Nothing is more gratifying to provide for your family, be able to go outside and snip some cilantro for your salsa, or grow sugar snap peas for your kids to eat off the vine... All 4 kids have spent every day in the garden with me, weeding, watering, and harvesting. Keep your kids involved (no matter the age) and it will peak some interest. Proud to say my 6 year old can identify most things in the garden then most and my 4 year old can harvest more tomatoes in his dump truck then you could bet on

[Tapout]

I garden to pick up chicks.

[pauldavid]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I didn't have a choice about GETTING interested in gardening and tomatoes since I was raised on what we call a truck farm here in the East. We had acres and acres of tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, winter squash, cauliflower, cabbage, one huge asparagus field, no doubt originally planted by the Shakers who owned the property before my grandfather bought it in 1906.

Also many orchards of peaches, pears, plums, many rows of red raspberries and currants of several colors, one long row of rhubarb, well I think you get the picture.

At about age 5 I was allowed to ride on the seat that was on the top of the water tank that was hauled by the tractor and was part of the actual plant setter which had spokes lined with rubber that rotated and you placed the tomato plant or whatever in that and it was automatically planted since the plant setter also had two shoes that opened up a trench and then rollers that packed the plants into the soil/

Then I graduated to being able to ride the plant setter myself, usually with Aunt Ollie since she was ambidextrous but I was not. Then came the time when I was expected to harvest what we grew, help pack it in the evening, load it into the truck, and then be at the gates of the local commercial market before 5 AM so we could get a good spot in the covered long stall where the commercial buyers would walk through, examining produce and then the bidding wars started.

At a very young age I had my own garden near the house.

I grew tomatoes wherever I lived which was in Rochester, NY, Denver, wherever, but when I moved back East to home in 1982 to help my aged parents, that's when I got so interested in heirloom tomatoes.

I found out about SSE from an ad in one of the gardening magazines I subbed to back then, joined in 1989 and there was no looking back.

I had my own large field near the house which was 250 ft X 90 feet and each season I would raise my own tomato plants and would have 8 to 10 rows of them plus long rows with melons, potatoes, b sprouts and much more. I had a side garden about 60 ft X 50 ft where I grew small stuff like carrots, beets, beans, chinese greens, certain squash, and on and on,

Major interruption here of almost 1 1/2 hours b/c Glenn Drowns who owns Sandhill Preservation called and we had a lot to catch up on. As in......did you hear what X did? no, tell me, and I'd answer I cannot belive that, and so it went. Glenn has a full time teaching job and yet finds the time to raise I don't know how many heirloom birdies and he said his second book done by Storey should be out, heck I forgot when and he also grows tomatoes and much more for seed for his catalog/online but he does buy some seed and notes that as well, He and his wife Linda are two of the most wonderful honest people I've known and he's one of only two that I can speak frankly with and it's the with him speaking to me. However, for someone who lists many hundreds of tomato varieties online and in his catalog, it just isnt right that he doesn't like to eat fresh tomatoes.

OK, picking up from where I left off, I've written too much already, my maternal grandparents had the largest nursery and farm stand in the tri-city area of Albany, Schenectady and Troy NY and for many years I spent a couple of weeks living with my Aunt and Uncle and working there and that's where I leaned so much about annuals and perennials as well. My grandmother Male lived on the other side of that farmhouse and she had wonderful perennials, some of the peonies I moved up here to where I am now.

Yesterday a tornado watch here, today a severe storm warning but Freda was able to get my tomato plants in this AM, and she cares for them since I'm not allowed out there in my walker.

There was a similar thread as this one a few years ago with lots of responses and I think I wrote some of what I wrote here, but I didn't try to find it for the simple reason that there are many many new Tvillian members who don't know that much about many of us old timers and I was here at Tville from the first day it opened in jan of 2006,

Carolyn

Thanks for sharing this with us Carolyn. It reminded me of my Dad, as he grew up on a working farm and always shared stories similar to this with me. There were 5 kids raised by their mother during the Depression era on a farm and there was a lot of hard work and a lot of love! My Grandmother had a green thumb and was grafting and gardening as an older lady when I came along. Sadly all those fruit trees are gone, but her perennials always brighten my day when they bloom, as I have rescued many of them and transplanted to my gardens. My Granny, Dad, Mom, my uncle, and all but one aunt are gone but their gardening spirit still lives on and endures.

[Tracydr]

I forgot to mention my parent's childhoods. My father grew up poor in small-town Texas and his family had a garden and a pig or two. He picked cotton for awhile to supplement his family's income.
Mom grew up very poor in northern MN in an all Finnish community. She said they only ate what they were able to hunt,gather and grow. Maybe a little flour,sugar and coffee from the co-op. She remembers getting mad at her brother when they were sent to pick berries because he would eat so many they'd be at it twice as long, and, riding the pack of the truck to throw seed potatoes in the long trenches.

[seasyde]

Growing up, I never remember not having a garden. Both parents came from gardening families and its just what we did. Grew up, got married, moved across the country, and started relying on store bought plants, since I didn't really have the room to start seeds. Realized that I was missing out on variety, so made room to start from seeds this year. I now have 9 varieties growing in my yard! Enjoying the variety of sizes, shapes and eventually, the taste of all these tomatoes.

[Worth1]

It was mentioned in another thread that we were an agrarian society.
I beg to differ.
Most of the people in the US are hunter gatherers.
Very few people in this country actually have anything to do with agriculture.
The rest go to the store to hunt for things and gather it.

Worth

[pauldavid]

Originally Posted by Worth1

It was mentioned in another thread that we were an agrarian society.
I beg to differ.
Most of the people in the US are hunter gatherers.
Very few people in this country actually have anything to do with agriculture.
The rest go to the store to hunt for things and gather it.

Worth

Thats funny Worth!
I have heard that 2% of the population are farmers and they feed the other 98%.

[wormgirl]

Originally Posted by Tapout

I garden to pick up chicks.

It would work on me haha

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by wormgirl

It would work on me haha

You wanna come see my garden I have plenty of alcoholic refreshments.

Come and see my web said the spider to the fly.

Worth

[Jeanus]

You all made me want to cry then Mr Worth smile. Thank you for all the responses. I am going to keep on encouraging my now adult children into gardening. I just got my first tomatoes since I left Mn for Fl. Dwarf? Golden Heart. I have had to top them lol at over 6 ft. Tasted mighty good in a BLT. I had to wait until my hubby left and raid a small secret stash of bacon. He has a bad ticker and now bacon is a no no. My mom taught me to garden my grandma to like house plants. Taste and economics brings me back. I hate tasteless store tomatoes and the ones at the road side stand here were spitters.

[Stan Marzano]

"What got you intersted in gardening and tomatoes?"

I'm Italian.

[ChristinaJo]

Tap out,

Lol! It would probably work on me as well.( if I were single, of course). I bore my poor husband of "garden talk".

Stan,

Your icon pic totally made me laugh!

[Stan Marzano]

Oh..Does the way I look make you laugh? Am I funny? Like a clown??

[Yak54]

[QUOTE=Stan Marzano;481985]"What got you intersted in gardening and tomatoes?"


As a young boy I grew up eating the Oxheart tomato's that my Mother grew. She was known around the neighborhood for these tomatoes. These were what inspired me to try my hand at tomato growing when I bought my first house. Wish I knew what variety of Oxheart they were. Oh well, I just keep growing new to me varieties every year and have enjoyed this journey for more than 30 years.

Dan

[Cole_Robbie]

I was hoeing the garden when the hoe was taller than me.