George Howard, The Producer

  George Howard was a producer. He took his acre in Frazier Estates, Plain City, Ohio and made it work in the amount of food that came off of the land. Strawberries grew by six rows of one hundred feet, as did corn, cabbage, string beans, onions, tomatoes, etc.

  Mr. Roy Winston would bring his plow down each spring and turn over ground for everyone in the neighborhood; Mr. Thompson, Mr. Davidson, Mrs. Leftwich, Mr. Estis, Mr. Crump, Mr. Pace, Mr. Morrison and Mr. Abercrombie. After the ground was turned, George would get out his rototiller and chop it into rows, except for the strawberries, which were perennials. Seeds and fertilizer were dropped and then covered, onion bulbs were planted. And of course, Dad had four sons who reluctantly were drafted into the planting and harvesting process.

  Weeding the huge garden was accomplished usually by hand, which meant bending a back to reach the strawberries. My brothers and I would throw clods of dirt at each other while we worked, causing Dad to fuss, but he would keep us out there, on the job until nearly dark, every day.

  Of course, late summer and early fall would bring the harvest and picking, as the preparation would start; snaping beans, gathering tomatoes for canning, shucking corn, collecting onions to store in the garage. He had a pressure cooker and would can beans, beets, corn, tomatoes, jellies and jams. Then he would freeze some items, like strawberries and blackberries, which we would pick along the railroad tracks and in the woods. We had a variety of apple trees that would produce apple butters and sliced apples for Saturday breakfasts.

  Aside from fruits and vegetables, Dad would purchase chickens, sides of pork and beef. He would hunt and fish with the seasons and would freeze bountiful amounts of game, like rabbit, squirrel and pheasant. He and Mr. Estis would load up a vehicle with coolers, drive to Fremont, Ohio and catch walleye when they were running up to Lake Erie. Then they would stalk perch and white bass in Sandusky during their seasons, bringing back hundreds of fish to put in our freezers. 

  So Dad made sure that we were well nourished as kids. He likely learned his production skill from growing up in rural North Carolina during the depression in a family of eight. His father, Noli, was a cook for the railroad and his mother, Nancy, was raising the family. 

  He continued the production even as we grew up and left home for college and service  in other cities.