Why So Small

It was the end of February. “Got any garden in?” a buddy asked me.

“I got a few early salad greens and a few peas.” I answered and then hesitated and added almost apologetically, “You know Joe…I only put out a small garden; about 25’ by 50’.”

He looked at me silently as if to say, “Frank, why so small? You do live in the country.”

“I do put out about an acre and a half of melons” I added to counter his silent question.

Joe comes from a farming community. He probably used a utility tractor to put in his garden. To put in a small garden in the country probably seemed kind of pointless to Joe. Still the unspoken question “why so small?” bothered me.

First I have neither the desire nor income to buy a tractor and implements to garden; that would be counter to my economic incentive to save money by gardening. I like to keep life simple and power equipment is all about complexity to me. I love hand tools…their quietness, low price and guaranteed startability. I’ve never taken a spade to a mechanic and told him I couldn’t get it to run. I get my exercise quota using hand tools. Some times I have to start up the old tiller to work the melon field, but I don’t like it…can’t hear the birds.

Working a small plot also allows me to concentrate a lot of organic material in a small area to raise soil fertility. Concentration is important. I don’t put the whole garden in in one day but add small sectors all through the spring and summer. I savor my time outdoors.

I’ve always admired those who produced a lot with a little, like those citizens who grew the Victory Gardens of WWII.

I think I have in the back of my mind that one of these days, maybe within the next ten years, I’ll have to leave the country to go to the suburbs to be near doctors and health facilities. I want something that will be doable (by anyone) in a city back yard lot…something I can take with me. Maybe the suburb plots will someday become the new garden lands for local markets instead of shipping produce from an average of 1,500 miles away.

So I guess I am just a small guy who likes to think small and simple. To do otherwise seems too much like work.

Slaw Praise

I harp a lot about the money saving aspects of gardening…I think a lot of that is because gardening is my chosen retirement hobby. The truth is there are a lot of really inexpensive and nutritional foods that can be bought in the grocery…perhaps so inexpensive that it is very questionable whether it would be worth anyone’s effort to garden grow them. Dried beans, dried peas, brown rice, oats, cabbage, onions and carrots are all super healthy foods that are dirt cheap. The pre-pre-prepared “convenience” foods are what make grocery bills high. Probably as much money can be saved by eating inexpensive staples and doing your own food preparation as by gardening.

I wrote an earlier blog about bean soups and incorporated a picture of a bowl of ham and beans and some dark bread. Later it dawned on me that I should also have showed a side-dish of cole slaw in the photo; cole slaw is the perfect taste complement to ham and beans. It also goes wonderfully with fish and fries as well. It is great with chicken, mashed potatoes and white pepper gravy. The same goes for beef, mashed potatoes and dark gravy. One of my favorite grade school cafeteria meals was chicken pot pie and sweet vinegar cole slaw. My parents and grandparents were the meat-and-potato generations; they were also the cooked cabbage and cole slaw eaters. Our generation is the lettuce/spinach salads generation but I doubt that these salads are really healthier than the cancer- fighting cruciferous family. Cabbage stores really well too, whereas the more expensive salad greens will go bad in the fridge crisper in short order.

Cole slaw can be made from cabbage, carrots, an onion, and sweet vinegar; all super nutritious, tasty, and cheap. Problem is these vegetables must be peeled and grated. It’s that food preparation thing I was speaking of earlier. My wife doesn’t care for this grating task so it sounds like a job for “retired man.” (For some reason beyond my comprehension she is forever using that phrase, “sounds like a job for RETIRED MAN.”) Once I am finished grating she adds her secret ingredients and we have a plastic container of slaw in the fridge to go with several meals.

Cooking from scratch and food preparation can be a savvy budgeting concept. Find some good slaw recipes. Here is one I just swiped from my wife’s kitchen counter:
Ingredients:
1 cup fat-free Miracle Whip
¼ cup sugar
8 cups cabbage, finely minced
2 tbsp minced carrots
2 tbsp minced onion
2 tbsp vinegar
Combine the Miracle Whip with sugar and vinegar in a large bowl. Mix well until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cabbage, carrot , and onion, and toss well. Cover and chill several hours. Only 57 calories per ¾ cup serving.