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Growing up in Upsala I was a “town kid” not a “farm kid”, but I learned the joy of “tilling the soil” through gardening. I got into gardening by helping my bachelor brother-in-law Jackie with his garden.

The Upsala Swedish Mission Church parsonage was built in 1892 by members of the church. In the 50s the congregation built a new parsonage east of the original one and they sold the old parsonage to Mary Heisick, my wife Marcia’s grandmother.  Marcia’s parents, Irene and John Rudie inherited the house from Grandma Mary in 1971, so they sold the farm and moved to town.  Marcia’s brother Jackie was a bachelor blacksmith who had never moved away from home, so he got the upstairs bedroom. 

Jackie got permission from the church to create a vegetable garden west of the old parsonage. Many years later Jackie was forced to garden with a Yamaha three-wheeler because of bad knees so I offered to help with the tilling only to get yelled at for running over some of the seedlings. Being a “town kid”, I didn’t know the difference between a weed and a seedling.  Also, the rows that he had planted were not straight. The next spring I drove stakes in the soil exactly 36” apart and used heavy string to define the rows. I didn’t get yelled at that year.

In 1999 I bought the old parsonage from the estate of my mother-in-law, Irene Rudie, and started to garden in earnest. Most years I had lots of vegetables.  My daughter bought the old parsonage from me a few years ago, so now she is the “master gardener”.    We are not likely to get the Yukon Gold potatoes in by Good Friday, as the Farmer’s Almanac suggests, but maybe by May 2nd. There are few joys more delightful than eating freshly dug Yukon Gold potatoes baked or boiled, with real butter of course.

“Three-fourths of the people that you will meet tomorrow are hungering and thirsting for sympathy.  Give it to them, and they will love you.”  Dale Carnegie