grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

  • Home
  • About
  • Media
  • Crafts
  • Farm
  • Food
  • Garden
  • Reading & Books
  • Sunday Letter
  • SHOP!
  • Privacy Policy

Farm Art Friday: Cotton Trailers

December 12, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 2 Comments

Farm Art Friday: Old Cotton Trailers

Cotton trailers made great play pens for my sister and me. Even when they were empty, we spent lots of time climbing into them, crawling underneath, jumping around inside. And when they were filled with cotton, oh my. Playing in a half-filled trailer of cotton always entertained us.

Today, cotton farming has evolved to round bales. Tidy. Efficient. Expensive. Cotton is baled and wrapped in protective plastic right in the field.

round cotton bales - farm art friday

And of course with these advancements in farming, old cotton trailers are becoming extinct.

Someday when I have chickens, (okay I’ll probably never have chickens but who knows), I want a coop made from a cotton trailer. Check out this one from Organic Mike in Texas. Brilliant!

Chicken Coop Cotton Trailer – Organic Mike

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Celebrating #cotton trailers on this #FarmArtFriday. @ArFB[/tweetthis]

I used to work in the cotton fields a lot when I was young. There were a lot of African Americans working out there. A lot of Mexicans – the blacks and the whites and the Mexicans, all out there singing, and it was like an opera in the cotton fields, and I can still hear it in the music that I write and play today. – Willie Nelson

Musical Pairing:

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Cotton Fields

Cotton and Okra. Kissing Cousins.

July 16, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 12 Comments

Did you know cotton and okra are cousins? The plants are botanically related from the same scientific family Malvaceae.

The veined leaf shapes are very similar with a reddish purple spot at the base of each petal.

okra and cotton = cousins!

The blooms are similar too.

okra and cotton blooms

The final product!

okra and cotton - related plants!

One fills our bellies, the other covers our bellies. I love both!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Alabama – Song of the South

Riding with a Farmer

June 8, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 16 Comments

We were driving to church for my cousin’s wedding when Daddy pulled off the highway and stopped the truck. “What are you doing?” Momma asked, even though she knew the answer. Riding anywhere with a farmer meant factoring in lots of extra time. Daddy drove slow enough to watch cotton bolls open from the highway.

“We’re gonna be late,” I moaned and applied another coat of strawberry lip gloss. I hated to be late for anything, plus I was in charge of the guest book.

Daddy grabbed his hoe from the back of the truck, ambled across the shallow ditch, and waded through rows of knee-high cotton. He wacked down the annoying weed wearing his new sport coat from Westbrook’s.

Momma sighed.

All the Tate girls had been trained to scan the horizon for johnsongrass. Teasing and waving in the breeze, the offensive plants were easy to spot, a different shade of green standing taller than the crop.

Daddy had some of the cleanest fields in Mississippi County. Everyone agreed.

riding with a farmer...

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Lord I Hope this Day is Good, Don Williams

 

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Talya Tate Boerner


Hi! I'm Talya. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

Click to BUY NOW!

Talya Tate Boerner books
Gene, Everywhere

Never miss a blog post! Subscribe via email:

Receive my Monthly Newsletter?

Most Popular Posts…

  • Chicken Tortilla Soup
  • Yum Yum Cake - old southern recipe!
  • Nana's Strawberry Cake (the real one)
  • Peking Roast (a Keiser's Kitchen recipe)
  • The Best Beef Stew!

Most Recent

  • Chicken Tortilla Soup
  • Sunday Letter: 01.29.23
  • Sunday Letter: 01.15.23
  • Sunday Letter: 01.08.23
  • Sunday Letter: 12.18.22

Prior Posts

Search Categories

Tags

A to Z April Blog Challenge Autumn BAT Book Reviews childhood Christmas creative writing prompt Dallas Desserts Eureka Springs Fall Fayetteville Food Gracie Lee Halloween Hemingway-Pfeiffer home humor Johnson Family Keiser Lake Norfork Lucy and Annabelle Mississippi County Mississippi Delta moving Munger Place Nana nature Northeast Arkansas Northwest Arkansas Osceola poem Reading Schnauzer simple living simple things spring spring gardening Summer sunday letter Talya Tate Boerner novel The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee Thomas Tate Winter Wordless Wednesday
Follow on Bloglovin

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!

All content and photos Copyright Grace, Grits and Gardening © 2023 · Web Hosting By StrataByte