Historical Summer 2021 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Skinker-DeBaliviere hosted its first neighborhood event since the pandemic shut down the beginning of June with the McPherson Breakfast Garden Tour, a fundraiser for the Community Council. For the garden’s 23rd tour instead of visiting backyards in the neighborhood, the tour was concentrated in the McPherson Community Garden for safety due to the pandemic protocols. Because the tour was in the community garden, it was an opportunity for neighbors to gather and visit while eating breakfast and to discover parts of the garden that they may not have known existed such as a grape arbor, fruit trees, sunflower garden, an herb garden, and a honeybee hive!
The garden tour always has a theme and this year’s theme was heirloom butter beans.
There were nine puzzle pieces in the garden with the letters that spelled out the theme and produced a coloring page once the puzzle was put together.
In addition, anyone who completed the puzzle could plant and take home their own bean plant!
It was great to enjoy a neighborhood event again! And excerpt from the book explaining the theme is below: An heirloom is an item that has been passed along from family members through generations.
An heirloom plant is created when the best seeds from the plant are selected, replanted, and saved year after year. Today we are sharing a plant that is both an heirloom plant, and a family heirloom. Linda Cross’ grandparents Thelma and Otto Schlosser (aka “Tom” and “Spud”) lived in Baden, Missouri, and had a beautiful garden, filled with flowers and vegetables.
They were very frugal and creative with their resources, and they repurposed materials and plant containers.
They collected and saved seeds from each year’s harvest, and shared crops and seeds with their friends and family, including their butter beans. Why are these magic beans? Because if children plant them, and water them, and pick them when they are ripe, they eat them and enjoy them!
When fussy, picky eaters ask to have lima beans, that is magic. And, if you save the seeds – leave them on the vine until the pods get tan and the seeds dry out – you can plant them again and grow hundreds more – it’s magic!
Original photograph caption
Breakfast garden tour gathering in the Mc Pherson Community Garden.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2021.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Source prints And excerpt rather than An excerpt; retained.
Original source: SD_Times2021_06.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
