Happy Sunday to my Sunday Letter readers~
We’ve had a gorgeous fall week here in northwest Arkansas. I hope you’ve had a chance to get outside and enjoy the cooler weather. Over on the other side of the state, the cotton harvest on our farm has ended. Once again I am thankful to be a farm girl from Mississippi County.
Sometimes I think you have to be from a place to fully appreciate it. I also believe leaving a place helps you see the full beauty of it when you return.
Home Sweet Farm Pics
This is one of my favorite shots of our cotton field near Little River.
It’s beautiful in every season.
2022 has been a very dry year. One thing about this most recent trip to the farm—Little River truly was ‘little’, so dry the riverbank was crying out for rain.
Oh looky… a cocklebur plant it all it’s glory. I took this picture at the Mississippi River in Osceola.
These prickly plants flourish around river banks, lake shores, and cultivated land and pasture. If we lived way back in the day, we might have used the cocklebur plant for treatment of malaria, rheumatism, diseased kidneys, and tuberculosis. Today we primarily consider them a terrible nuisance, positively vicious when stepped on.
But they look pretty cool if you think about it.
Something you may not know—the common cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) is an herb that belongs to the Asteraceae family, same as asters, daisies, and sunflowers. Even though the cocklebur looks nothing like a sunflower, plant families are determined by flowers and reproductive parts. Just like people—we don’t always look like our cousins, but we belong to the same family. And every family has a few prickly cocklebur cousins mixed in with the daisy sweet ones.
Speaking of rivers, Ole Man River is at a low water point, that’s for sure, but he is still mighty and muddy and mesmerizing to those of us who like to watch him roil by.
From where I was standing on the Arkansas side of the river, notice the white sandy beach across on the Tennessee side. That isn’t normally there.
On October 12, the river gauge at Osceola recorded water levels of 8.8 feet below what is considered ‘low stage’. This is the fourth-lowest level recorded in Osceola since record-keeping began in 1927. (per Zenger news)
The Mississippi River is one of the world’s major river systems carrying 92% of the country’s agricultural exports, 60% of all grain exports and 78% of feed grains, soybeans and livestock exports. It is also one of North America’s great migration routes for birds and fish.
I pray we get rain soon.
Wind Pollination
This is the time of year milkweed pods burst open to reveal seeds. And the seeds are attached to fluff called pappi.
What a beautiful thing to see.
Yesterday, March winds blew in October. I swear it was like we had moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The good news—wind is an important pollinator. And as of this morning, all these milkweed seeds have no doubt parachuted into nature. These seeds will germinate and later provide vital food for monarchs. Birds and mice and other critters might even use the fluff for winter nesting.
So while we may grab our hairdos and curse fall allergies, there truly is some good blowing in the wind. And because of the pappi, a seed blown by the wind can sail up to 100 miles before landing!
Happy Birthday Gracie
What kind of schnauzer mom would I be if I didn’t tell you Gracie celebrated her 2nd birthday two days ago?
Even though most of my tennis shoes bear her sharp teeth marks, this little girl has brought an incredible amount of joy into our lives.
Cheers to two whole years!
Wilson Cafe
We never go home to the farm without eating at least one meal at the Wilson Cafe (in Wilson, Ar). Our roots run deep in that little town.
When I was born, my family lived in Wilson; Momma taught English at Wilson High School and Daddy worked for Lee Wilson & Co. When I was two (like Gracie) we moved to the farm but still returned often to Wilson.
Question: does anyone from Wilson remember the airplane that was parked beside the Hampson Museum? I loved to climb on that airplane!
Wilson Cafe was originally the Wilson Tavern. Oh my goodness—the tavern served such great fried quail and fried frog legs, and if you’ve never eaten them, especially with cream gravy, well, you are missing out.
Anyway, the place is a lot more upscale now, and we pretend we are too. ☺
If you ever find yourself in northeast Arkansas, do yourself a favor and stop in for a meal. The atmosphere is charming; the food incredible.
And because it’s October, and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, when our server recommended pink Save the Ta Tas cocktails, of course we said YES! The baked brie with peach jam and pesto hit all the right appetizer notes. And two large crab cakes with mashed potatoes and spinach gave me plenty of leftovers to enjoy the next day. (Not pictured: Momma’s chicken pasta dish or Staci’s butternut ravioli.)
The menu changes with the seasons and local food availability, but the flavor is consistently A++.
I don’t recall the exact ingredients of our pink cocktail, but if you want to host a party for Breast Cancer Awareness, I found lots of fun pink drinks you can make from a couple cooks website.
Of course alcohol is optional.
Things Momma Says:
I don’t cook anything that needs more than three ingredients.
Thanks for reading today’s Sunday Letter—Farm Edition. 🚜
Is it dry and windy where you live?
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
My hubby and I married in the Spring of 1966 but left in 1968 when we moved to Richmond, Va. In the fall of 1966, we bought our very first dog. If you know English Springer Spaniels, you know that they have long pendulous ears that snag cockleburrs way too easily. Our first guy was Prince of October (Tober) who found those burrs too easily collected. Thank you for the gorgeous pictures. They grow a little bit of cotton here, but the massive fields that we had when I lived in Arkansas are so beautiful. I even loved the plant full of burrs.
Our schnauzers drag in all sorts of dried leaves and stickers in their hair. I call them velcro dogs.
Happy Sunday to you! Happy Birthday to Gracie! We really enjoyed your letter but then we always do. Cockleburs will puncture bicycle tires! One year on Iowa’s RAGBRI (Register’s annual great bike ride across Iowa) you could hear tires blowing all around the designated camping site. It was awful. We had a couple of blowouts ourselves. It is super dry and windy here and we are overcome with those nasty, stinking, biting Japanese beetles. Ugh!
Wow! I didn’t know they were strong enough to puncture a bicycle tire. We have Dallas friends who have done RAGBRI several times. And gosh, I despise Japanese beetles worse than cockleburs, but fortunately I only see them in early summer.
We road RAGBRI from the second year in 1974 or ‘75 for 13 years and then we started doing other states. Those we memorable times.
P. S. I’m about 3/4 through Bernice and loving it/her.
I remember climbing on the airplane next to the Hampson, eating at The Tavern and roaming the streets of Wilson with my cousins. Those were happy times. Thank you for your writing. BTW, I just finished Bernice Runs Away. Bravo, I LOVED IT.
YAY!!! I’m so glad you loved Bernice Runs Away. And, I’m glad you remember the Wilson airplane. (Sometimes I wonder if I imagined it.)
A week or so ago, I drove from Paragould to Maumelle, passing through the Newport area where I loved seeing the gloriously full cotton fields. Yesterday I made the same trip, and the fields were no longer white. Having been picked, they were now dotted and lined with those huge round bales—are they still called bales?—which are so striking and beautiful in their own right. Here’s the wonderful thing: this year all the bales were wrapped in brightly colored coverings, some pink and some yellow. Pink and yellow! I enjoy the beauty of the bales in the fields every year, but this year, with all that color, they knocked my sox off!
Yes, still called bales!! I even saw blue ones driving back from Piggott two days ago. I so enjoyed spending time with you at HP.
Oh no! I might be the Cocklebur Cousin in my family! Glad you all got the trip back to see the cotton! My calendar tells me you will be at Pearl’s this afternoon. We are moving our daughter and family this weekend, so we might not make it. Hope it is a great time.
I loved living in Wilson, and sometimes I think I need to move back there. But then, there’s the Bat Cave. ❤️
Thanks once again for starting my Sunday morning off with smiles and memories! I just love looking forward to this read:)
I have also climbed on that old plane at Wilson and ate at Wilson Tavern many years ago. Good times.
I wonder what happened to that old plane. I remember skinning my knee inside it, and even though it hurt, I wore that scab like a badge:))
I always enjoy your Sunday comments. I can relate to everything and every feeling that you mention. I miss the cotton and wheat fields next to my house in Osceola. The Tavern was our favorite place to eat. The sand bars on the Tennessee side were welcoming when the River was low. We spent a lot of time on that muddy, swift river. Thank you Talya for helping me visit Mississippi County.
Thank you, Mary Etta!!
I haven’t yet made it to Wilson, it’s on my Arkansas bucket list though. However, I’m very familiar with cockleburs so they must exist in other parts of the Midwest where I grew up. The farm land in eastern Colorado has weed seeds called goat heads, they may rival or outperform cockleburs in the pain factor when you step on them.
I’m currently fostering a border collie//blue heeler mix puppy. I was reflecting this morning that I haven’t had a puppy in 15 years, all my more recent dogs were rescued as adults. Oh so cute, oh so much watching with a puppy! She’ll hopefully get adopted quickly as she is so cute. And then the dogs and husband and I will rest!
I know about goat heads. Maybe there are in Texas too? And yes, they are tough!! I love that you are a foster mom. I would probably get too attached LOL.
What a perfect description-March winds blowing in October in central Arkansas. My husband & I are recuperating from a covid bout, & had the windows & doors open yesterday. I kept saying “this is the dampest wind!” 😊
Yes, this wind has been something else! Hope you are feeling better!
We live in Jonesboro but love to take a little road trip to Wilson. The cafe is awesome!
My husband, James Allen, remembers the plane. He enjoys your writings about Mississippi County;it brings back good memories. He is from Keiser.
Yay! I’m glad it wasn’t just me. Thanks!!