My Nebraska Garden - Carole Forsman (Omaha, Nebraska)
My garden began years and years ago.
Or so I am told.
Grown with care and loving hands,
this is how my garden began.
Corn, lettuce, tomatoes and other seeds
were planted by my family.
With each passing generation
my family planted roots
along with crops of various kinds.
Making a life in Nebraska
that now spans seven generations
along with one Native American line.
From small farms in Ulysses, Seward,
Talmage and Alliance, Nebraska to
numerous home gardens
my family grew and grew.
Not just produce, fruits and herbs
but generations of Nebraskans too.
Some had livestock and other animals,
but all grew tomatoes and other such crops.
Each family member learned well what it meant
when you have to pray for the rain,
Just the right amount so when harvest time came
one had a good bounty to last many a days.
We still have our family gardeners still
planting fruit trees, herbs, and,
of course, their tomatoes and other
such traditional crops, like corn,
lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, peas,
watermelons, and foods that can be canned.
My Nebraskan Garden is more than plants.
It’s a tapestry of my Nebraskan family history
that started years and years ago.
Started with a small, little Nebraskan family farm
to generations of Nebraskan farmers and gardeners,
tied not just to land but in heart and soul as well.