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Post by grtgzu on Aug 3, 2012 6:31:42 GMT -5
Well, was watching the Christmas show yesterday with the kids from England, and I didn't know they grew popcorn...As a matter of fact, I can't recall seeing ANY corn in their garden, which I always thought was kinda odd, yet we saw corn being husked in the kitchen...But Grandpa made mention of the fact that they were fortunate to be able to grow it so they could later string it on the Christmas tree...
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Post by JeriJet on Aug 3, 2012 6:41:16 GMT -5
I have always imagined that the small garden off to the side was not all they grew...... perhaps the corn was behind the house?! My grandfolks had three-four small patches going -- tomatoes were separate for some reason, as was the corn ?? Also, pumpkins were all by themselves.... Maybe has something to do with "encroaching" or what bugs may attack different plants ?? And, height of different plants -- wanting to be sure the sun gets at all of them ??
My bro-in-law is a major gardener -- all things grown organically. Oh, I love visiting them -- grabbing something from the garden and eating it right on the spot. Or cooking it immediately. It's like catching a rainbow trout and plopping it right in the frying pan!
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Post by marylou01 on Aug 3, 2012 9:28:50 GMT -5
I rem seeing corn in the garden beside the house. Can't rem the episode (s)
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Post by JeriJet on Aug 3, 2012 9:36:18 GMT -5
I have always imagined that the small garden off to the side was not all they grew...... perhaps the corn was behind the house?! My grandfolks had three-four small patches going -- tomatoes were separate for some reason, as was the corn ?? Also, pumpkins were all by themselves.... Maybe has something to do with "encroaching" or what bugs may attack different plants ?? And, height of different plants -- wanting to be sure the sun gets at all of them ?? My bro-in-law is a major gardener -- all things grown organically. Oh, I love visiting them -- grabbing something from the garden and eating it right on the spot. Or cooking it immediately. It's like catching a rainbow trout and plopping it right in the frying pan! Oh, and forgot to mention the seasons == the garden would look different depending on the season of the episode !!! But, then, we all know that production crew !!
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Post by grtgzu on Aug 3, 2012 10:07:48 GMT -5
Hey Marylou - are you talking about the area where we saw them growing other stuff?
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Post by ForeverWaltons on Aug 3, 2012 11:38:00 GMT -5
I too have seen corn growing in their garden.
But if they did grow their own popcorn, you cannot plant it at the same time as your regular corn because they will "pollinate" together and you will not be able to eat the regular corn. Same thing happens with regular corn & indian corn. You have to put some growing time between the different corns.
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Post by Brenda on Aug 3, 2012 12:39:25 GMT -5
I've always assumed that they had a huge garden somewhere that we can't see, since it appeared that they mostly lived off the land. I never saw them buying any produce from Ike. That small garden couldn't possibly have fed 11 people during the growing season and still leave enough for canning so they would have something to eat during the winter. I've often wondered where they got their meat, too. Did they have pigs? They seemed to eat a lot of ham and sausage. It was either from their own pigs, or a neighbor's, or they bought it from Ike.
Did they ever go berry picking to make jelly and jam? When I was a child, we had blackberries growing around our house, and we would pick them and my mother would make blackberry jelly. We also grew strawberries, and she made jelly from some of them, and then froze the rest. We had apple and peach trees too. Both of my parents worked full time, so they didn't have a lot of time for working in a garden, but they usually grew tomatoes, and they would all come in at the same time. For a couple of weeks, we would have tomatoes all over our kitchen. They bought most of the other vegetables from a farmer's market, and my mother would can them for winter. Just writing about this makes me feel so lazy, thinking about how hard my mother worked when she got home, after working at a job for 8 hours.
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Post by daniela on Aug 3, 2012 12:53:09 GMT -5
That's so true. Hard work was the way of life. I'm wondering if people don't make their own jams and stuff as much, because you can buy "organic" stuff in the stores now?
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Post by grtgzu on Aug 3, 2012 13:10:43 GMT -5
Interesting about the meat situation - I too wondered where they get their beef from - They only had 1 cow and Chance was used for milk only - heard Papa John refer to her as the "milkin' cow" the other day - I know they have a smokehouse cuz I just saw Grandpa and Lizbeth there the other day when she was totin' a rack of bacon (to avoid that cute kid who had a crush on her)...And we never see them BBQ-ing either....
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Post by JeriJet on Aug 3, 2012 16:31:45 GMT -5
And surely they would have eaten venison, but you never hear it mentuioned, nor deer hunting.... Chicken and ham were the bulk of their meat-eating, along with fish, I think.....
Oh, and I do remember a couple of episodes where berry picking was done..... I always enjoyed that as a kid..... and fun to watch the jellymaking process in the kitchen -- those cheesecloth bags hanging over the stove -- what a sight! And for some reason, melting the parafin I found quite interesting !! Couldn't believe it would work!
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Post by marylou01 on Aug 3, 2012 16:46:22 GMT -5
Hey Marylou - are you talking about the area where we saw them growing other stuff? Yes, that's the one I'm talking about. But like Brenda I just assumed they had a huge garden/gardens elsewhere. I recall seeing the smokehouse maybe 3 times. Realistically they would have to have had huge gardens, pigs and probably more than 1 cow. As Brenda stated they would have picked berries for jelly/jam, canned fruits as well as veggies, kept wood chopped for the stoves/fireplaces and a coal house & dairy (sp) for storage. Keep in mind the women cooked 3 meals per day, a lot of them still carried water for everything. They had children under foot while doing chores & was usually pregnant with another one! I used to say if they ever learned what caused that they'd stop it LOL. ;D
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Post by ForeverWaltons on Aug 3, 2012 19:59:30 GMT -5
They showed Grandpa starting a fire for the smokehouse in "The Stray." Todd Bridges who starred as Josh in that episode comes up to Grandpa and asks him what he is doing.
I saw another episode recently were Ben was sneaking into the smokehouse to smoke cigarettes.
Then on another episode about the fair....it has the Waltons with some pigs. Because Ben asks his Dad if he can use one of his pigs for the greased pig catching contest & that they would pay him (Ben) for the use of the pig.
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Post by JeriJet on Aug 3, 2012 22:08:03 GMT -5
I think occasionally they took a pig in trade for some lumber..... may have obtained more food items that way, like additional much-needed milk. It just struck me that I haven't seen a milk case in Ike's store, but he must have had one..... I'm remembering something different about that greased pig..... I don't think the family had more than one pig at the time, if any, and I think Ben was hoping to "win" it Something like that, anyway..... there was definitely something about its owner..... Not at all sure about this. Anyone remember?
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Post by daniela on Aug 3, 2012 22:12:11 GMT -5
Keep in mind the women cooked 3 meals per day, a lot of them still carried water for everything. They had children under foot while doing chores & was usually pregnant with another one! I used to say if they ever learned what caused that they'd stop it LOL. ;D *********************************************************************** LOL Marylou!
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Post by daniela on Aug 3, 2012 22:20:10 GMT -5
Jeri, The greased pig was a pig that Yancy gave to Ben. Ben wanted to start breeding them, and John Sr. said that was fine. They were having a celebration day ( can't remember what for), and they needed a greased pig and Ben entered "his" pig. The owner was there, and accused Ben of stealing his pig, and John asked if they could buy him. The owner wanted $5.00, and was rude about waiting for the money, so Olivia gave him the $5.00 she won from her cake( which her and grandma put the recipe in the icing!)
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