When I was a kid growing up in Richmond in the '50s, a lot of people  
had a few backyard chickens. I think it's now illegal to keep such  
"farm animals" in the city. In our neighborhood, Woodland Heights (in  
south Richmond), which was mostly built as a streetcar suburb in the  
1920s, the old houses had cherry, apple and pear trees, black walnut  
trees, and an abundant grape arbor; neighbors shared the bounty with  
other neighbors. We'd gather a few bags full of black walnuts, spread  
them under the back porch to dry, and before holiday baking season  
sit with a hammer and knock off the outer husks and the hard shell,  
to get the nutmeat for baking. In summer we'd have a dishpan full of  
cherries on the back porch, washing them so Mama could make pies, and  
of course eating plenty, too. Sitting under the shade of the backyard  
maple tree, shelling fresh butter beans and talking. So even though  
it was very much in the "city", it was in a way a rural lifestyle,  
too. My grandparents lived in Chesterfield County, and had a small  
vegetable garden, in the summer we kids would be out there picking  
butter beans, blackberries, various melons, squash, cucumbers,  
tomatoes, corn, etc. When you grow up with fresh food, the horrid  
stuff in the grocery stores today can never compare. Nothing better  
than fresh corn, picked and brought into the house and plopped  
directly into boiling water. Fresh kale, after a first light frost-  
I'd just pick it and eat it raw. Or ripe tomatoes, still warm from  
the sun.

Out here in rural Orange County there are still older folks who have  
their vegetable gardens. Then one day you no longer see them out  
there, they must have died, and no one else continues the garden.  
Sad. One thing about gardening, no matter if it's for food or  
flowers, it makes you generous. Sharing your extra tomatoes or giving  
away cuttings of a favorite flower, it's a pleasant way to look at  
the world.

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Jan 21, 2007, at 1:36 PM, Anita Wills wrote:

> When I was growing up in rural Pennsylvania, the farmers would send  
> meat, fruit and vegetables. We went to the Farmers Market during  
> the summer (which was run by the Amish), and they had the best  
> foods, and bake goods there. In the fall my uncle would bring us  
> baskets of pears, apples, peaches, tomatoes, and other fruits and  
> vegetables. My mother would can the goods for the winter, and  
> eventually she taught me how to can.  Most of the canned fruits did  
> not make it past the first couple of months (I can still taste  
> them).  Early in the morning my father would get up and go to a  
> farm to get milk fresh from the cow. Sometimes he would come home  
> with eggs, which were freshly laid.
>
> Most of the people that were from the South kept gardens growing,  
> and they also hunted and fished. The concept of going to a market  
> to buy food was foreign to them (this was in the 1950's). My mother  
> told me that they grew everything on the farm she was raised on.  
> They churned butter from the cows milk, and even used hops to make  
> beer.
>
> I really miss that part of growing up.
>
> Anita
>
>
>> From: Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia  
>> history              <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: "ex" Ku Klux Klan member
>> Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 15:21:58 -0500
>>
>> The Virginians on my mother's side called making a big mistake  
>> "cutting a hog."  I imagine this referred to the fact that doing  
>> harm to a hog before the first freeze meant you would probably not  
>> be able to preserve and use all that meat.  Farm folks, even those  
>> a generation removed in the coalfields of Pennsylvania, understood  
>> the value of home produced protein for the good of the family.
>>
>> In fact, both my grandfathers, industrial workers from Virginia  
>> (maternal) and Georgia (paternal) kept kitchen gardens all their  
>> lives, providing for their families not only by earning wages but  
>> through their skills as gardeners.  This tradition continues among  
>> blacks (and not doubt whites, too) in Virginia and the South but  
>> is a dying skill in the urban North and West.
>>
>> The extraordinary richness of southern agricultural potential  
>> makes, I think, the actual history of agriculture in the South a  
>> massive puzzle. Think, for example, of how the South ceased to be  
>> food self-sufficient after 1865.
>>
>> Harold S. Forsythe
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 1:45 PM
>> Subject: Re: "ex" Ku Klux Klan member
>>
>>
>>> You are absolutely right. If we think the recipe thread got  
>>> people bothered this subject will really "take the rag off the  
>>> bush".....which could lead us to a great line of discussion: old- 
>>> timey expressions.
>>> Does anyone know where the expression: "take the rag off the bush  
>>> came from"?
>>> I know. First of all, it translates to mean something mildly  
>>> astonishing just happened.
>>> Where it originated was from laundry days and sometimes people  
>>> would drape their damp napkins over the top of a bush to dry.  
>>> Very likely it would be something like an English boxwood bush  
>>> since they are fluffy and have no thorns which would tear the  
>>> napkin. Occasionally, a black bird or a bluejay would swoop down  
>>> and snatch the napkin off of the bush and fly away with it.
>>> So, there you go!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Debra Jackson/Harold  
>>> Forsythe" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 12:56 PM
>>> Subject: Re: "ex" Ku Klux Klan member
>>>
>>>
>>>> Oh, my:  this is totally inappropriate for this listserve.  The  
>>>> LV folks are kind enough to offer us this forum uncensored but  
>>>> that means we have to be responsible.  Democrats vs. Republicans  
>>>> is certainly an argument we are free to have but not here.
>>>
>>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the  
>>> instructions
>>> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>>
>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the  
>> instructions
>> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
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