Carlin Farm

Reflecting back on my years growing up on a dairy farm in Lycoming County, PA, I see that God was preparing me for my future life. I can remember many summers of helping my mother and grandmother can the vegetables out of our garden. Our garden was close to an acre of land and then there was the sweet corn field and the potato patch that just as big. It would be nothing for them to can 500 quarts of tomatoes and to “put up” as they called it just as many pints of sweet corn. Oh there were other vegetables like pickles, pickled beets, green beans and many other tasty foods. I can remember long hours of picking potatoes. My dad would use the potato digger and then we would have to crate up the potatoes after they laid in the sun for several hours to make sure they were dry and then carefully place them in the potato bin the in the cellar. We would use that supply of potatoes and canned goods up during the winter and spring and start all over again. There were 6 of us in the household, but it seemed like every weekend we would have lots of cousins that came to visit. My grandmother was the chief cook for our clan. She was of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage so we had a lot of meat and potatoes. She was an excellent cook. I learned a lot from her. She has gone home to be with the Lord for many years now, but she taught me well and has passed down some recipes that my clan now likes. Take time to appreciate your elders, you may never know what you will learn from them that you will use later in life.

I have a little note to add to this. My husband pointed out that I no longer pick potatoes or other vegetables for that matter. I guess my thoughts were that my mother and grandmother prepared me to be the wife of a farmer. Even though I no longer am able, due to health reasons, to help him plant or harvest the vegetables, I am here for other reasons. I support everything that my husband does. He is a great husband, father and provider for our family. He is a very hard working man and I will back him up on anything that he does. So even though I am not able to be of help to him in certain ways, I will always have his back. Oh I do help with the market and other things like bookkeeping and such but it just isn't the same as when I was able to help with the planting and harvesting.