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Texas | Columns | They Shoe Horses, Don't They?

Living Off the Land
in Suburbia

by Bruce Martin
Bruce Martin

It is sometimes remarkable what triggers memories embedded in the confines of the memory bank; activities and events of by-gone days; rarely conjured, but not entirely forgotten.

An episode of a recent PBS gardening show was one such program that brought back recollections of childhood in a semi-rural area of northeast Houston in the 1940’s, before expansion of the city boundaries. My parents always had a fairly sizeable garden, yearly, growing everything from “B” (beans) to “Z” (zucchini).

For some unexplained reason, one growing season was exceptional. Whether it was a combination of temperature, moisture, and soil conditions remains unknown to me. The crops were bountiful! One, in particular, was the okra. The plants grew to a height requiring a step-ladder to retrieve the upper pods. And, the pods themselves grew to lengths of 10-plus inches. And, they were as tender as normal pods in the 5-inch range. Dad saved some of the seed to plant the following year; but, the resulting yield was a normal plant height and pod length.

During times of harvest, mom spent hours canning the vegetables for meals in later months. She also made jams and jellies from the varieties of grapes, elderberry, figs, plums, and blackberries grown. In season, we also had fresh cumquats and persimmons for snacks.

Other sources of food included raising chickens and ducks for both meat and eggs, rabbits, and fish from both fresh water and salt water catches. One year, dad and a neighbor raised a hog for slaughter. While other luxuries of life were slim, we ate well!

In today’s society, such home-grown resources would be restricted by neighborhood or city regulations…


© Bruce Martin

They Shoe Horses, Don't They? April 9, 2014 Guest column

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