Here is yet another Spring blessing! The local Farmers Market...YEA! I just love the fresh, locally grown produce and the market in Broken Arrow has other enticements besides veggies. This time of year they offer plants they have sprouted to be planted in your own garden.
There was one man that already had leaf lettuce ready for sale. I asked him about fresh garlic, and he told me when to plant it, and when it will be ready to harvest (now is NOT the time, I found out!).
I mentioned I was looking for onions that would multiply. I had been given some 30 years ago when we lived in Arkansas and grew a lot of our own veggies. Our neighbor, and landlord, Mrs. Sullins, had a huge garden that she and her husband planted. Corn, okra, beans, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, carrots, squash, cucumbers, and of course onions were grown on about 1/2 acre of land. She would be out early in the morning tending the plants and pulling weeds. She never laughed or belittled our measly garden but encouraged us with her vast knowledge of planting, growing and harvesting.
One Spring, we had a thunderstorm roll through that dropped buckets of rain in a very short time. The creek that ran behind our rent house and the Sullins', started rising. It came over our garden and almost to our back porch! When I looked out at the Sullins beautiful garden, I saw that the back third was not only covered with water, but the current was running right across it! Her onion patch, three rows of corn (already two feet high), and her squash mounds were caught by the rushing water.
After the water receded, Pete and I went out and pulled debris off our fence and checked the outbuildings. Then headed to the Sullins. Corn was laying down with roots exposed to the now hot sun. Her onions were gone. We spend an hour re-planting and straightening their garden. Then I headed to the patch of onions Mrs. Sullins had given me. They survived the water and I replanted part of them back in her garden.
When the Sullin's finally came out to check on everything, they were very, very surprised, and so grateful, that Pete and I felt embarrassed by their emotional thank you's!
Thirty years later and back to the Broken Arrow man. He knew exactly what I was talking about, handed me his card and told me to come back on Saturday and he would bring us a bunch. I have been looking for multiplying onions for years and no one knew what I was talking about! What wonderful people God blesses me with, and what wonderful memories of a sweet, sweet woman.
Thank you, Father, for the reminder, and please say 'Hi' to Mrs. Sullins for me.
Matthew 13:18-23 (The Message)
"Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams."
No comments:
Post a Comment