George,

Of course this will make everyone laugh because it is exactly the tradition you'd expect from my family: tomatoes. Well, and peppers too.

Of course, tomatoes are mostly a warm season crop, but there was not a Sunday or Wednesday in my life during the tomato-growing season that my dad didn't carry a "sack of tomatoes" to church to give to somebody. And, of course, after all of us kids grew up, moved out, got married and had our own homes and families, Dad always had tomatoes for us if we weren't raising our own surplus of tomatoes to give him.

After his death, you wouldn't believe how many people spoke so fondly of Daddy and his big brown sack of tomatoes. The big brown paper sacks are mostly gone from grocery stores now, but back then my Dad would fill up a big brown sack and carry that sack around in his arms after church, dispensing tomatoes right and left. After his Alzheimer's began to impact his gardening and we'd moved to Oklahoma, I'd occasionally drive down to Fort Worth and take him a big bag of tomatoes. Did he keep them all for him and mom and my brother's and sister's family who lived nearby? Nope. He took them to church and passed them out. He passed them out so freely and with such joy that he sometimes forget to give them to my brother and sister, so I remedied that by taking them their own sacks of tomatoes....and I know that sometimes my brother would give some of HIS tomatoes away....the ones I'd just given him.....because he wanted to share them with his friends and neighbors. I can't think of my Dad and his garden without picturing him with a sack of tomatoes in his arms after church.

Going further back than Daddy, my grandparents always gave us a bit of everything they raised too, especially pickled beets and pickled cucumbers. (My mother didn't garden nor did she can, although my dad did both.) A trip to my grandparent's house meant sitting around snapping beans or shelling peas, and bringing a whole mess of them home too. And my grandfather loved taking us outside to show up how his garden was doing. My favorite thing that Papaw grew when I was a child was popcorn. He kept the kernels in a huge one-gallon jar in the kitchen and I thought it was magic that he could grow popcorn. Some of my friends had grandfathers who grew sweet corn, but I was the only one who had a popcorn-growing grandpa.

Over the years, we have given many gifts from our garden, but not necessarily the same ones from year to year: salsa, tomato sauce, canned jalapeno peppers, jalapeno jelly, peach jam, strawberry jam, etc. I have made herbal wreaths and swags and given them as gifts, after once receiving an herbal swag as a gift from an elderly woman when I was a young newlywed. Some years, I cut and dry flowers, and then turn them into flower arrangements and wreaths to give as gifts. Some years, I have done the same with dried herbs, or ristras of dried chile peppers. I also have made soap and even paper, incorporating herbs and flowers from our garden. And, of course, I have made gifts of plants, cuttings and seeds many times.

To me, half the fun of gardening is sharing the many wonderful kinds of "produce"--sometimes in their fresh state straight from the garden or fruit tree, and sometimes as ingredients in wreaths, herbal products, etc.

I had aunts and uncles who gardened and freely shared their fruits and veggies throughout the growing season, and gave canned veggies and fruit jams, jellies and preserves at the holidays.

Sometimes I make our firefighters fruit cobblers from fruit we've grown, or fruit pies or muffins. Also, eggs are one of the "gifts from the garden" that we share. Sometimes, the chickens lose their minds, make a nest in the mulch, and start laying eggs in the veggie garden itself.....and then the eggs really ARE from the garden. I think a lot of people are more thrilled to receive a carton of eggs than a sack of tomatoes, because "fresh, home-grown eggs" are such a rarity, especially guinea eggs.

I agree that such gifts are priceless--whether you are on the giving or receiving end of the process.

This coming summer, my cousin and her husband will be planting their first vegetable garden ever at their "new" (to them) country place in the upper Hill Country of Texas. It has been on their "to do" list ever since they bought 15 acres of pasture and began converting it to their own little slice of heaven on earth three years ago. Now that all the animal barns and corrals are in place and the houses are done (85-year-old aunt in one house, cousin and her DH in another, and their daughter, and her DH and DD in another), they are adding chickens and a veggie garden next year. So, it is great to see another part of the family preparing to carry on the gardening tradition.

And, of course, she won't be starting her new garden alone....I'll be there with advice, seeds, cuttings and plants.

The love of gardening itself is a precious gift, and being able to share it with others is truly a blessing.

Dawn

Eggs! I agree. Only I usually have to crawl around in the hayloft to find ours. The breed of chicken we've had longest is called Kraienkoppe (Dutch/German breed derived from Southeast Asian stock). Kraienkoppes are DETERMINED to be mothers! I think their favorite activity is hiding their eggs!

When we give someone eggs we are showing them great esteem.

Seeds & cuttings, like you mention, Dawn; are another wonderful kind of garden gift. I can still see, in my mind's eye, the day that Jerreth's great aunt & uncle showed us their garden, back in 1982, and let me have some of their Tennessee Cutshort bean seed. That meant the world to me (us). We still grow this bean and remember them by it.

George

I loved those stories. What wonderful memories you both have!

My mother used to grow lots of tomatoes. If she came to visit you, she wouldn't bring you any. You had to go visit HER. And unfortunately, if she was mad at you she'd give them to ANYBODY before she'd give you any. She was a really difficult woman and she got mad at me quite a lot, which is how I got started growing my own tomatoes!

Ilene, My mom always puzzled me.....she had fantastic gardening parents and a gardening husband, and she didn't want to have anything to do with the yard or garden, although she gladly ate the produce. I do have neighbors here in Love County, though, who despise the thought of gardening because they spent their entire childhood helping their parents raise their own food and have no desire to spend hours tilling, planting, weeding, hoeing, harvesting, etc. I guess they burnt out at an early age, but for me all the gardening done as a youth just made me love it more.

One of them told me last year that her whole goal in "growing up" was to earn enough money to buy store-bought food and not "have to" raise her own when she was an adult and out on her own. That's the same attitude my mom has always had.

George,

Our guineas are like they...they go out and lay eggs in the middle of a tallgrass pasture and finding them is almost impossible.

One of the funniest things about sharing eggs is having people discover how GOOD fresh eggs taste. I have a friend, though, who won't eat a fresh egg--he thinks they look "funny" because the yolks are a bright orangey-yellow and not the pale, washed-out yellow of supermarket eggs. His mom and I have tried to convince him that the bright yolks are desirable and better for you, but he won't touch them. By contrast, his 11-year-old son loves them and has always enjoyed gathering the eggs himself, ever since he was about 4 or 5 years old. He knows a good egg when he eats one--he won't eat any eggs but ours. : )

Dawn