With some warm weather finally, we planted some garden goodies this week. Now the last few days it has been rainy and cool. Still, we planted 20 pounds of seed potatoes and want to plant more. We also planted lettuce, radishes, peas, and yellow and sweet onions and some flowers. Once it dries off again outside I’d like to plant some corn, green beans, red beets, cucumbers and zucchini squash. It’s enjoyable to have the whole family working outside in the garden.
The younger ones enjoy planting their own little garden in the soil at the opposite end of the where we’re working. We also mowed our grass for the first time this spring. It had grown quite a bit already.
Friday evening we were surprised to see Joe’s Uncle Solomon and Jake and his wife from Ohio come to visit. They brought Joe’s Dad and brother, Noah, along also. Solomon brought us a big root of home-grown horseradish. We planted a few starts and then made horseradish with the rest. It turned out really good and we are enjoying it. Solomon gave us his recipe and I’ll share it with you at the end of this column. We appreciated Solomon bringing us some horseradish as I always wanted a start of it to plant.
On Saturday we had more relatives come visit us. My uncle from Mississippi and uncles from Geneva, Indiana came to visit. So we’ve seen a lot of family in the past few days. Nice to be able to get caught up with visiting.
With the spring weather we are still enjoying dandelion greens. Rhubarb looks like it’s ready to use and the asparagus is peeping through, so we’ll have more spring time goodies to enjoy. I do miss my winter onions though and hope to get a start again soon on those.
I have been working on my mending which accumulates so fast with eight growing children in this house. Rainy days like today give me a chance to mend. I have a button here and there that needs to be sewed on also. Joe bought me a sewing machine about four or five years ago that will sew on buttons. That really makes it a lot faster to sew than doing it just by hand.
Kevin is so fussy right now. I think he needs a nap, so take care until next time.

UNCLE SOLOMON’S
HOMEMADE
HORSERADISH
Clean and chop horseradish root very fine. Then add to the following ingredients, adding only enough horseradish to make it the thickness you like:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon sugar
a pinch of salt
Mix with horseradish after its chopped up fine. Store in sealed container and refrigerate or use immediately. Optional: add more sugar or salt to your taste if you want to.
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