Daytripping Summer 2022

...and then wanders town by town, to unique shops and stops in SW Ontario
The Really Big Carrots
By Vicki Hornick, Tilbury
Growing up in a large farm family,
planting the garden was an annual right
of spring.
Dad worked hard raising the hogs
as well as planting and harvesting
cash crops, like wheat and soy beans.
The thing is, despite being called cash
crops; they did not bring in
much cash. Thus, practical,
reliable, frugal dad rallied
his troops each spring to
plant the garden.
With the meat of one of
the hogs in a freezer and
the vegetables we had grown,
the family would be fed through the
winter.
Squash, rutabaga and other root
vegetables were kept in a cold room.
Most of the beets were pickled with
Gramma’s recipe. Corn, beans and peas
were blanched and frozen along with
some of the carrots. Parsnips were left
in the ground to freeze into wonderful
sweetness; we had to dig them out with
a pickaxe when we needed them.
The garden was large; it had to be
to grow enough for a family with ten
children. Many rows of corn ensured
there would be enough even after
raccoons took a share. Of course
raccoons were less of a problem while
we had Boots, our boarder collie. She
loved corn and would pick it, husk it and
eat every kernel from a cob before going
back for more. Boots knew we were
sharing the corn with her and she was
sharing it with us. She would not share
it with raccoons. When the corn began
to ripen Boots would spend her nights
patrolling the corn patch.
The garden was planted behind the
back barn, but we knew when the coons
had come. Laying in bed we would all
be started awake by Boots’ hysterical
barking and the trilling and snarling of
startled, angry raccoons that were being
denied access to one of their favourite
meals. Boots would fight epic battles
some nights to reclaim control of the
corn patch. In the morning she would
be praised and rewarded by us for her
vigilance before settling down for some
much needed sleep.
With the garden behind the back
barn it not only put it in easy reach of
raccoons from back the lane; it was also
beside the manure pile. Every day when
the pig pens were cleaned the bedding
straw and manure was carried in the
wheelbarrow and dumped out the back
door of the barn. It was spread on the
fields after the fall harvest, but by spring
there was already a large, growing pile
again. We kept the edge of the garden a
good ten feet from the manure pile and
planted the corn on that side. This way
we figured the corn was fertilized, but it
of course was growing on the stalks well
above the possibility of contamination.
After the corn came the bush beans,
tomatoes and the peas, which grew
up frames, also keeping them off the
ground. Then came squash, pumpkins,
cucumber and zucchini, which grew
on the ground. Finally root vegetables;
carrots, beets, radishes, turnips and
parsnips were planted on the far side of
the garden away from the manure pile.
This was a plan we rigidly stuck
with every year, confident it eliminated
possible contamination of our vegetables.
Accidents happen; especially if a plan
is being put in place with the help of a
bunch of boisterous children.
During the course of planting
we dug and weeded and
hoed and threw dirt and
water and chase each
other around with hoses
and buckets.
In the course of one
of these chases two
of my older brothers
Shawn and Robin made
the circuit of the garden;
Shawn with a bucket of
water and Robin holding
an open packet of carrot seeds, still about
a quarter full. As they rounded the end of
the corn patch Robin tripped. The seed
packet flew from his hand scattering
seeds across the edge of the manure pile.
The seeds were lost and we didn’t
think much more about them for a couple
of weeks; then something happened that
couldn’t be denied. There were carrot
sprouts coming up in the manure pile
and they were coming up much faster
and larger then the carrots planted in the
proper spot.
All summer we tended the garden;
weeding, harvesting and replanting
root vegetables as they were pulled
and processed or eaten. We tried not to
notice the carrots in the manure as the
tops grew taller and more verdant than
Queen Anne ’s lace.
We tried not to notice but we could
see, even with a quick glance at the
manure pile, carrots that while we were
harvesting carrots as big around as
quarters by mid summer they were as
big around as saucers. By fall they were
as big around as my father’s arms. They
were in short; really big carrots.
School started and through September
and October we harvested and processed
the last of the vegetables. Our freezer,
cupboards and cold room were quite
full. The cold room should have been
especially full of carrots; it was not.
We harvested all the carrots and other
root vegetables in the proper patch, the
corn stalks and other above ground crops
were striped and plowed under. We still
tried to ignore the really big carrots, until
curiosity could no longer be denied.
When the last of the non contaminated
vegetables had been processed, except
the parsnips, still in the ground waiting
to be frozen, we decided to find out just
how big the carrots were.
With work gloves in place, shovels and
hoes and the wheel barrel at the ready to
carry our findings we began to dig. The
carrots were indeed as large around as
Dad’s well-muscled arms, they were two
and a half to three feet long and looked
healthy and juicy.
We dumped almost two dozen carrots
on the ground and hosed them off, while
everyone gathered around to admire
them.
Mom said, “I’m not cooking those.”
Everyone else; even practical, reliable,
frugal Dad said, “I’m not eating those.”
Yes, we had grown the biggest,
healthiest and juiciest looking carrots of
our lives and no one would eat them; no
one human at least.
Dad couldn’t let that much food go to
waste, after washing them a few more
times he let the pigs have them. The
pigs thought the really big carrots were a
really big treat.
Amherstburg
Garden Tour • June 25 & 26
Woofa Roo Pet Festival • June 25 & 26
Canada Day Celebrations • July 1
Car Gone Crazy Show • July 24
Art By The River • August 27 & 28
~ www.visitamherstburg.ca for full details ~
www.visitamherstburg.ca
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