Northeast Arkansas - grace grits and gardening

K is for Keiser

April 12, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

At first glance, my home town may not look like much. An hour from the nearest mall and surrounded by rice fields, Keiser is a small speck on the map of Arkansas, a blur to those driving somewhere else. Yet filtered among the watchful cottonwood trees, memories live—memories of cheerleader practice, Halloween carnivals, best friends, the Yellow Jacket Cafe with mouth-watering burgers and onion rings.

I drive the streets to recharge and refill, to remember the place rooted deeply in my mind. To remember myself.

Although the gin is boarded-up, I imagine the highway once lined with over-filled cotton trailers, the wind blowing and spilling a trail of white along the side of the road like snow. The stadium lights went dark years ago, yet the buzz of junior high football lingers in my heart.

I feel your smile, even though you’re gone.

I remember.

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

K-E-I-S-E-R-J-A-C-K-E-T-S, hey-hey, clap, stomp, clap clap, repeat. Keiser Jackets sting ’em!

“There are some important things to remember always, no matter how hard life presses at you. One of these things is that wherever you are, and no matter for how long, there must be a home to hold you.” – Sheila Moon, Knee Deep in Thunder

Musical Pairing:

Turning Home, David Nail

F is for Farm

April 6, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

There are four distinct farm seasons. Planting, Growing, Harvest and WaitingRestlesslyToPlant. Today we are at the tail end of WaitingRestlesslyToPlant season.

During the long cold season of WaitingRestlesslyToPlant, farmers drive along muddy turn rows, staring at black furrows laid out like fans, willing the weather to warm. They wait and plan and watch the sky counting down to the first day of Planting season when collectively all the farmers exhale, along with their wives and children.

Nurturing crops day and night during Growing season, farmers pray for sunshiny days, then pray for rain, then pray for no rain. So do their wives and children.

Finally, the smell of defoliant fills the southern air. Harvest Season. The most wonderful time of the year. The fields are saturated in white, a sea of snowy cotton. Golden wheat bends and bows to the earth. Rice hang heavy and dry. Dust flies. Combines roar. Blackbirds watch from a safe distance. The end of another year, another cycle.

At the end of Harvest, farmers are content to have a bit of money left over to plow back into the soil next year.

Farmers toil from sunup to sundown, from can to can’t. They do it because they love it. They do it because they can’t not do it.

talya

The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat…”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Musical Pairing:
Big Green Tractor, Jason Aldean

Be sure to watch this video above of our farmers from home!
Never A Dull Moment…Fishing for Cotton…
(Senter Farms, Holthouse Farms, Mississippi County, Arkansas)

Letter to my Younger Self

March 23, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

Dear younger self,

Hey there. I know you never imagined being half a century old, but it happened. And it happened rather quickly. Looking back, I offer this bit of advise to you, my younger self…

Why do you worry? You are a kid. Stop taking things so seriously. Stop being afraid of life.

Write in a daily journal. Record everything, record nothing. Random thoughts, crazy feelings, far away dreams, pie-in-the-sky goals, embarrassing failures, family traditions… You’ll thank me later when you decide to write a book.

Keep reading. The answer to life’s questions can always be found between the pages of a good book.

You have wit and insight. Trust yourself and don’t worry about what other people think or say or do. You are in charge of you.

Listen to yourself and hear what you have to say. It’s okay to put yourself first on occasion. Making your own needs and aspirations a priority will allow you to better care for others.

Challenge yourself. The road less traveled is scenic and quiet and provides more time to think.

Take more accounting classes. Debits and credits will be useful.

You.Are.Not.Fat. Not by a long shot. Why do you count calories?

That luscious, good-enough-to-slurp coconut oil may smell heavenly, but it is ruining your skin. You will never be tan like your best friends Becky and Norma, so stop wasting your time. The things that make you different and unique make you special.

Get to know your Daddy. He isn’t what he seems, and you won’t have him very long.

Learn to make Aunt Virgie’s pie crust. If you don’t, by age fifty your pie crusts will still be hit and miss…

You will meet many people throughout your life, but take a look at these childhood classmates, the smelly boys, the giggly girls. These friends you have now will be life-long friends. This is rare.

Someday you will regret that groovy spiral perm. But go ahead and get it. Looking back and laughing at yourself is a good thing. Looking back and laughing at that horrible perm will make age fifty more tolerable.