From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 20 is "Nature." Any farmers or gardeners in the family? How about someone who simply loved to be out in nature? How about an ancestor with a nature-inspired first name or surname?
It's funny how this week's theme is nature when I look out at my parents' garden and see nary a vegetable in sight. They haven't been able to plant anything at the time of this writing as the weather has been really bad here in the Merrimack valley. We had maybe one or two days of sunshine this month. In early May, we usually plant a few things. We just haven't gotten around to it because of the weather.
By now, I guess you could say that my parents are definitely gardeners! For as long as I can remember we had a garden in the backyard. It's grown in size over the years. We've had our summers where we had good crops, bad crops and even an invasion by a woodchuck. That was one interesting summer and I have stories that I don't think I can repeat on a genealogy blog! Sufficed it to say it gets very much like those Elmer Fudd vs Bugs Bunny cartoons!
My parents have grown the following veggies in this garden:
Tomatoes
Green beans
Potatoes
Red peppers
Green peppers
Basil
Thyme
Cucumbers
Squash
Hot peppers
Zucchini
I guess you could say that we have a veritable salad bar! All that's missing is carrots. They tried growing them. They turned out weird. Like...carrots with two long orange parts. You'd swear the soil was radioactive or something! Nah. The soil's fine. No ill effects from that. That I know of! Then again, we DO live a stone's throw away from Seabrook.
Having a garden, though, has its advantages. The tomatoes were often made into homemade sauce and it, of course, was really good. My mother was self-taught in the art of making pasta sauce. She had no help from my paternal grandmother and I like to think that Grandma Ollie enjoyed it whenever we gave her some. And trust me when I say that my grandmother was no slouch in the kitchen! Neither were her sisters for that matter. That's a story for another time!
Another advantage to having these fresh veggies was to provide fuel. In high school, I was on the cross country team. We would run long races on really hot days during the fall. So, my mother would make tomato salad for the team to snack on at parties after a meet. Tomato salad is sort of like caprese salad. But, without the cheese. The ingredients are remarkably simple: Tomatoes + Olive Oil + Basil + A little garlic= Pure. Genius. They were so loved by the cross country team, former teammates asked me years later asked me if my mother still made them. My old COACH even asked. I laughed and said that of course she does.
The Ferraiolo garden always has something good growing in it and I hope that the weather improves so that my parents can begin planting the 2019 edition of the garden. Now with raised flower beds! My dad. Always trying to improve the garden in any way he can.
I suppose my parents' green thumbs came from their parents. If memory serves, my grandfather, Marco, had a garden. And no he didn't chase me around it with an orange in his mouth! This isn't the Godfather! My great-grandfathers, Vincenzo and Giuseppe had grapevines for their gardens. My other grandfather had a garden as well. Looks like I have a long history of green thumbs. I just wish stuff *I* put in the ground grew! Kidding. I am adept at growing potatoes.
As I look back at my genealogical research, I've found a lot of farmers. Especially in Italy. When I've found birth banns or documents, I usually see "contadino" when I see the parents' profession. Contadino means "farmer" in Italian. I guess this might explain why my father has such a love of gardening. It's always good to have fresh veggies on hand and smelling the sauce simmering on the stove for hours on end is so good! The smell fills the house. There's nothing like it!
Here's hoping that the 2019 edition of the Ferraiolo garden gets started soon. The people demand fresh sauce! Pesto or otherwise!
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