SPR I N G • M a rc h 2 016 • 1st Edition • G reensb oro, M ississippi • visit us online @ ww w. wc s h c. co m
Robert Robinson’s Gardening 101 Session
Memory Walk
By Latrice Todman Email: tarieltwcshc@gmail.com (Right) Legendary Farmer Robert Robinson teaching a participant at his Gardening 101 Session in Brookhaven, MS.
By Frank Taylor Email: fltaylor@bellsouth.net
Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and other southern states received a torrent amount of rainfall last week, which impeded life in rural America and caused farmers to press the pause button on pulverizing their soil in preparation for spring planting. However, Winston County Self Help Cooperative moved the mantle forward with the “legendary Farmer Robert Robinson Gardening 101 Presentation” on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, in Brookhaven, MS. As the temperature hovered above 80 degrees Mr. Robinson’s spoke expletively of his sixty years of producing quality vegetables in central Mississippi.
Robert continues to farm the land his daddy farmed during the Great Dust Bowl. Robinson Farm operation consists of vegetables and beef cattle production. He raises a variety of vegetables including greens, tomatoes, squash, peas, cucumbers, green beans and others. The “Gardening 101 Session” started with a song and prayer rendered by Fenton Pope of Covington County Self Help Project and words of welcome granted by Anna Robinson of Robinson Farm. Frank Taylor, WCSHC elaborated on the purpose of this informative event by highlighting the need for small farmers to ascertain place based Robert Robinson’s Gardening 101, Continued on page 2
WINSTON COUNTY SELF HELP COOPERATIVE P.O. Box 774 • Louisville, MS 39339 Phone: 601-291-2704 • Email: fltaylor@bellsouth.net • Web: www.wcshc.com “Saving Rural America”
Do you remember the days when your grandmother, mom, dad, paw paw and etc. would take you out to their garden for your own personal “Garden 101 Session”? Visiting my grandma in the summers meant learning valuable garden skills such as the ones taught by Mr. Robinson. Each day, my grandma would wake my cousin and I up for our garden lesson and chores. This entailed planting seeds and picking ripe products (i.e. peas, corn, green beans and etc.) and then shelling, shucking, and snapping the products to be placed in the freezer in bags for later use. Every day my cousin and I (two city kids) would devise a plan on how to quickly accomplish our task so that we could spend the remainder of the day playing on the farm. Boy, those were the good ole days!
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