Plantin' Time

Plantin' Time

by Tom Woodard

When I was a child, back in the 1950's, growing up in rural Pickens County, Alabama, just about every family had a garden, not for aesthetics, or as a hobby, but to put food on the table. Vegetables were grown in abundance, not just for eating fresh, but for canning (putting up in sealed glass jars), to be eaten during the Winter and Spring months before the next year's garden could begin to put food on the table. Pickles and sour kraut were also home-made. Likewise with apple and other fruit trees. Fruit was pickled, made into preserves, jelly, and so on. Apples were dried in the Sun to make pies. Folks also gathered wild plums, blackberries, dewberries and huckleberries for making preserves, jelly, and pies. I could go on and on about all the preparations folks made to provide for their families, so that there would be good food on the table year 'round.

Times have changed a lot since those days. Americans have become spoiled by the abundance and variety of foods available in our super markets, and have gottne used to having fresh fruits and vegetables year round which once were only available "in season". People don't grow gardens and can fruits and vegetables like they used to. Most folks don't want to put that much effort into it, when they can just go to the grocery and get whatever they want.

But things appear to be changing once more, and this time in the other direction. Recently food prices have gone up forty percent in a very short span of time, and as fuel prices continue to soar, the cost of food will also continue to rise, because food has to be transported, like all other goods, by truck, ship, train, or airplane to the final destination - your favorite grocery store. And fuel is also needed to power the tractors and other farm equipment used to cultivate, and in some cases harvest, all that food. Some experts, based on careful scientific studies, believe we will completely run out of petroleum based fuels within our lifetime, and those same experts predict that we will not have time to come up with practical alternatives before this depletion of oil, and the fuels and many other products derived from it, happens. Some even say that when this happens people throughout the world could starve.

These are grim predictions, and they need to be heeded and kept abreast of by everyone. The one hope these experts point to as a possible solution is Solar energy, from the Sun, but the technology is not yet developed to harness this energy to the vast level needed to replace oil and gas based fuels. They even say (and they are very serious when they do so) that one of the most valuable possessions a family may have in the not too distant future will be a horse or mule, to not only provide transportation but also to plow the ground for planting crops and gardens! We could literally go back to the end of the nineteenth century in many ways!

And that, dear friends, is the purpose of this article: to suggest that it is time to return to the practices of the days of my childhood and youth, when everyone planted gardens, tended fruit trees, and went out into the wilds and along the fence rows to gather wild berries and plums. Yes, I do beleive it is "Plantin' Time", and cultivating time, and harvesting time, and canning time. We need to get ourselves prepared for the very real possibility that we will not be able to get the foods we need from a supermarket, or, that even if the food is there we cannot afford to purchase sufficient quantities to feed our families. The more we can grow and put up for ourselves and our families and neighbors, the less we will have to depend on a supply line that may not be there in the future!

That brings to mind another memory of my younger days, which is that people shared a lot back then. Seems that the less people had the more they shared! If you had too many tomatoes, you would share them with your neighbors. And perhaps one of them would have too much squash, or too many beans or peas, and they, in turn, would share with you and their other neighbors. This is a good example of serving God by "doing unto the least of these thy brethren", and it is something we need to keep in mind as the possibility of severe times, perhaps times of hardship, deprivation and hunger, come upon us. We need to be aware of the need to share, for example, with the elderly, and those who have no place to plant a garden. The times may be hard, indeed, but we may also get back to a "good place", where folks, as in the past, gave of what little they had, and gave cheerfully and willingly.

So, seriously friends, we might want to invest in a used plow and a good mule real soon, and start plowin', plantin', tending, harvestin', and puttin' up - and sharing with those less fortunate, or too old to do these things for themselves. And it just may be that this is the harbinger of the Second Coming, and of Armageddon, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, may just be coming back, real soon, to gather His children home. I'm not predicting - we are not to know the day or the hour - but for the first time in my life, I feel that the signs may at last be appearing. Whether His time of returning is upon us or not, however, it's a good time to get ourselves in line with His will for our lives - and to be looking for a good mule!

"Even so, come Lord Jesus."

Note: Just wanted to let y'all know that on May 17th, Angie and I bought ourselves a mule drawn breaking plow and a mule drawn furrowing harrow. Now all we need is a mule!

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