Revised 1997 May 27

Claude Eddleman Farm (1939-1958)

We had one of the best garden sites in our community just south of our house. It was high and dry and that allowed us to plant early garden earlier than our neighbors. We also had other gardens scattered around the farm and we called these "truck gardens" but we did not grow produce for market.

Our Early Garden

South of the house we had a 100 foot by 100 foot early garden. It was well drained and therefore it warmed up early and we could plant early crops by mid-March. Early Irish potato, onion, peas, lettuce and radishes were planted first.

The Truck Patches

To be continued

Points to cover:

The Gardens

We had a fine large garden just south of our house. We also had other gardens scattered around the farm which were called "truck gardens," but we did not truck that produce to town for sale by peddling door-to-door. Peddling surplus vegetables around the streets of small town was a common but unprofitable practice. There was not enough demand to make a special trip, but I sometimes sold strawberries that way when the family was going to town for the regular Saturday afternoon trip. Now the streets of Marengo are just as dead as any other day, but in the 1940's it was a busy place on Saturday afternoon. Each family made most of their purchases on Saturday afternoon. A few trucks or cars parked on the street offered fresh green corn, tomatoes, beans, fish from the Ohio River, and one truck bought furs in season.

The main purpose of the "truck gardens" was to avoid hard work, but also avoided some insect pests by crop rotation. For example, we often planted a couple rows of potatoes the entire length of the corn field. That ground was plowed and planted the same time as the corn and that saved lots of labor. Perhaps the crop would be mostly mature before the insects found it. Watermelon, sweet corn, muskmelon, green beans, dry beans, sorghum cane, broomcorn, and tomatoes were the main crops we planted in the fields. Yes, we timed the planting of the sweet corn so that starchy pollen from the cornfield would not ruin it.

to be continued.

Suggestions, corrections, and comments are appreciated: Contact Harold Eddleman indbio@disknet.com