Thursday, April 26, 2007

Library Bag: How To Have A Green Thumb

I picked up Ruth Stout's 1955 gardening book at a yard sale. She describes an adventure from the rocky ploughing years to her "new" method of mulch gardening. Here's an anecdote from Chapter 2, The Second Season:

And yet, with all the failures, there was always some fresh vegetable for the table. Keeping the expense of food down to a minimum became a matter of great pride to me.
But Fred liked meat. One evening at dinner the only things which had come out of a store were coffee and a small amount of meat in the stuffed peppers. I got the feeling that Fred wasn't enjoying the menu as thoroughly as could be desired, so I said enthusiastically: "This whole menu cost about thirty cents."
Fred answered: "Good for you. but now I'm going to make a trip to the refrigerator and that's going to run into real money."

--Ruth Stout, How to Have A Green Thumb Without An Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening, p. 22.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL! Her husband sounds like my husband.

I am so impressed by what you find at your library. I think the library system here got rid of all the old "how to's" in the supposed interest of keeping current, unfortunately. Maybe I should try to make it to the library book sale for once.

Mom2fur said...

Me...I'd be more like good ol' Fred. I like my meat. But boy, oh, boy, I like my salad, too!
Wow...I can't get over how big your little girl is now! She and her brother look so adorable in that picture!