Farming Memories from Long Ago

When recording Abe Gridig’s stories, John Coykendall documented his unique expressions and regional speech patterns, which is reflected in the quoted conversation below.

Many of the stories that I write about are stories that were handed down to me from old-time farmers who lived decades ago. Over the years, it has been my mission to record as many stories and farming knowledge from former times as possible, to prevent that knowledge from being lost and to ensure that it is passed on to future generations.

Abe Gridig was a good friend of mine who told me numerous stories and tales about his early years of working with his family farming over on the Three Sisters Mountain, which is now Blackberry Mountain. 

Abe recalled that for several years, his family tended a strip of land over on Carr’s Creek.

“We plowed that bottom ground with mules following the contour of Carr’s Creek. We didden’ plow straight rows. That was rich ground, and it made good corn. They was several years that we tended that bottom in Hickory Cane Corn and Blue Ribbon Beans. Some of that corn was 12 to 14 foot tall, and them Blue Ribbon Beans would quiel (coil) plum to the top of them cornstalks. Come time to pull corn, we’d load them mule wagons with corn and burlap sacks full of Blue Ribbon Beans, and then head off to market and we’d sell before dinner (lunch).”

This year at Blackberry’s Farmstead, I have a patch of Hickory Cane Corn and Blue Ribbon Beans. My inspiration for this crop came from a Winter’s evening visit to Abe’s home, where we shared several evenings seated by his fireplace.

I have a number of notebooks filled with stories that he passed on to me, which are good examples of life and farming in the mountain areas of East Tennessee.

– John Coykendall, Blackberry Farm Master Gardener