When Grandfather and the children left the dogs, they went down a broad grassy path that led to the vegetable garden.

"We are going to see what you know about growing foodstuffs", Grandfather stopped as they reached the rows of vegetables. He thought Ardath would be more likely than Arthur to know the names of foods, so he asked, "Ardath, what is this vegetable?"

"It is lettuce." Ardath answered promptly, then added, "We had some for lunch, yesterday."

Grandfather said he was very glad Ardath remembered about the lettuce. Ardath was encouraged because he was pleased and went on to the next row of vegetables.

"These are onions", Ardath pointed to a row of dark green, spiked stems.

Arthur wanted to show that he knew something about vegetables, too, so he pointed to the third row. "We had come of these, yesterday, too."

On the top of these bushes were tiny blue flowers like little butterflies. Hidden among the leaves lower on the stalk were short, flat seed pods. When Grandfather asked him the name of the vegetable, he could not remember it, but said, "They were good."

"They were blue blooming sugar peas," Grandfather taught him.

Grandfather pointed to the third row of vegetables and said, "These are snap beans." The low bushes had small white flowers on them. "You eat them green, when the beans are in the pods, but since they are still in blossom, there will be no beans ready to eat for another two weeks."

"How do you know there won't be any beans for two weeks?" Arthur asked, looking closely underneath the stalk because that is where the pea pods were hiding under the leaves. But he could not see any beans.

"It is always two weeks from the time the beans are in blossom or flowering, until the seed pods form. The bean is the seed of the plant, you know."

Ardath got a very bright idea. "You put the seed in the ground to make a plant."

"You have the right idea, Ardath." Grandfather praised then added, "The new plant forms a seed and the process of growth begins over again." Ardath thought about it for a while.

"May we pick the beans when they are ready to eat?" Ardath asked.

"Do you remember, I said the beans would not be ready to pick for two weeks? If you were staying that long on the farm, it would be a very fine bit of work for both of you." Grandfather considered.

Before Ardath could be sorry she would not stay long enough for the beans to be ready to pick, Grandfather showed them dark green and red, beets. He said they were "root vegetables", which meant you eat the roots instead of the seeds of the plant. "It takes longer to grow roots to eat than seed foods", Grandfather informed them. "It will be another month before the beets are ready to eat. They were planted in late April."

Arthur walked ahead to what looked like long stalks of grass, far apart. "What is this stuff?" he asked, feeling the smooth green blades between his fingers. It was almost up to Arthur's knees.

Grandfather said it was "sweet corn". "I hope you know about eating corn off the cob?" He asked it as a question. "Eating corn off the cob is a real American way of eating. People in many places have never heard of eating corn that way. They miss a lot by giving all the corn to their pigs."

Grandfather told them so much about the sweet corn because he knew it was not so plentiful in Arizona as it was in Pennsylvania.

"This corn was planted the tenth day of May. That is the day we plant our corn in this part of the state, unless it rains. If it rains, we plant it as soon as we can after that date, but not before the tenth of May.

"It takes about seventy days for the corn to mature or form ears big enough to eat. It is now, June seventeenth. First, the stalks must grow and get tassels. The tassels have pollen which falls from one stalk to another and fertilizes the stalk so it can grow a seed. The seed is on the ear of the corn, growing in rows along the cob. It is this seed, we eat."

"Could we pick the corn, too, if we stayed until it is ready to eat?" Arthur asked.

"You could probably learn to tell when the ears are ready to pull, but it isn't as easy as learning to pick beans." Grandfather told them more about growing foods. "Perhaps if you visit Beverly Farm next summer, you will learn how to tell when the ear of corn is ready to eat."

"We'll come to wee you next summer." Arthur promised. "I'll be bigger then and can work more than I can this year."

"That is a happy thought." Grandfather smiled. We will see if it fits into the plan for your best learning.

"I wish I had a garden to grow food, right now." Arthur got down on his knees and looked at the corn stalks that almost hid him when he was kneeling.

"We may be able to arrange that for next year. If you plant a garden you must keep the weeds out of it so you will hve a good harvest. The harvest is gathering the part of the plant hat you eat. In some it is the leaves, as in lettuce, in others it is the seed, as the peas and beans."

"And corn", Arthur remembered it was the seed you eat of the corn stalk.

"What is a root vegetable?" Grandfather was having a food growing school.

"Beets", Ardath pointed to the red and green mottled leaves.

"That is not quite the right answer, I did not say ‘name one'." Grandfather explained that a "root vegetable" was one in which the root was eaten. "A beet is one of the roots we eat for food. Turnips, potatoes, onions, salsify and carrots are other root vegetables."

"If I come to your farm next year, to see you, will you help me plant a garden?" Arthur asked.

"I'll be glad to do that." Grandfather agreed. "But we don't need to wait until next summer to learn something very important about taking care of a garden. Do you see this plant?"

Pulling a small plant out of the ground by the roots, Grandfather said, "We did not plant the seed for this one. This is a weed which is a plant that grew from a seed a bird carried or which blew in from a mature plant with a ropened seed pod.

"Why don't you eat that plant?" Arthur was puzzled.

"Since we did not plant it," Grandfather explained, "we do not know exactly how to use it. It may be good to eat, but more likely it isn't since no one has been using it for food through the years. Perhaps sometime we will know what every plant that grows will supply to the human body. Until that time, we call certain ones, weeds and do not eat them."

Grandfather was hot sure that the children would understand. He told them if they would remember what he said, they would understand it all some time in the future.

There were tomato plants, peppers, parsley and pumpkin vines to look at and talk about. All of the growing food made Arthur wonder if lunch would soon be ready.

"Any minute now, that little bell will ring," Grandfather announced and even though Arthur had hoped it was lunch time he was surprised that the forenoon had passed so quickly.
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