Growing our own
Was vital to life
When I was young
But now lost in the fog
Of history
Like “putting up”
Meaning planting picking then
Shucking shelling snapping
And canning
In Mason jars
Placed neatly and proudly on shelves
In pantry basement or cellar
(Difference floor concrete or dirt)
Later in freezers
First community locker rooms then home
Horizontal or upright
Before that plowing disking planting
In rows straight as stretched string
For that’s how we laid them out
Then dug a furrow
With a push harrow
We bent at the waist
Hand planted the seed or eye
In a row
Or a hill
Potatoes white or sweet
For baking boiling or frying
Whole or sliced large to petite
Sometimes mashed or scalloped
Beans string and lima
Also called butter
Octobers pintos navy waxed
Runners creepers and pole
Corn Silver Queen or Golden Bantam
Beets red and yellow
Cabbages radishes salsafi
carrots parsnips turnips
Tomatoes for slicing juicing stewing
Red and yellow early and late
Lettuces eaten when picked
Arugula Butterhead Coral
Cress Endive
Escarole Frisée Iceberg
Little Gem Looseleaf Mache
Mesclun Oakleaf Radicchio
Romaine Speckled Stem
Supermarkets
Not yet invented
Only grocery stores
Where men standing behind a counter
Clad in aprons
Gathered your order
Of salt sugar flour
Never vegetables
Which you grew and put up
From your Victory Garden