The last few years, since 2020, we’ve been really working on our flower beds and adding more things around here for pollinators. For many years, the only plant we had around here was Gramma’s Onions.
The year before she died, I was visiting my Gramma at her house. She was already undergoing cancer treatments, but was in a good place and was still getting out and had a little garden. She always liked to walk me around and show me what she was growing. If you come to my house and I do that, I’m channeling my inner Gramma Carol.
That day she had wanted to show me some new green beans she was growing. these beans were VERY long and grew on a taller plant. So, with less bending down and by only grabbing one handful of beans, you could harvest enough for a side dish for 3 people. These are good things for aging gardeners to consider. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
So, as we walked around the garden and she showed me how her plants were doing we were stepping back towards the breezeway and I saw something growing on the back side of her garage.
“What’s that?”, I asked.
“Oh, those are just some volunteers, I had dug them up and set them there and then they just kept growing”, she answered.
She asked if I wanted them because I had told her I was growing herbs & vegetables in pots around my house.
I said sure and I went home that day with a decent sized clump of what affectionately became called “Gramma’s Onions”.
They are really a chive. I don’t remember exactly what my Gramma told me they were that day, but in my head they were like green onions. And, I didn’t think that they came back every year. So, when my husband asked me what those were, I just said Gramma’s Onions.
I have a bad gardening habit of acquiring plants and then not planting them. Oftentimes for days, sometimes for weeks, when I’m really bad in the case of some succulents I bought for house plants, months. So, Gramma’s onions just sort of sat by the porch for a while. I’m not sure how long was a while, but it turned out that they just sort of started growing in that place. So, in the end, I cleared out that area and then that spot became for Gramma’s Onions.
We eat them sometimes, but not too often. I love the flowers on them because they last a really long time and bees seem drawn to them. And, I like that whenever I see them, I think about how these are Gramma’s onions and that while Gramma isn’t here anymore, her memories are still here and the fruits of her labor are still out here making the world a little better.
This week, when I was looking at Gramma’s Onions, I noticed that it’s time to separate them. And, I’m just going to keep them going. I’ve still got a couple more places where I think I could add Gramma’s Onions. And, I now have enough to share! Maybe one of my cousins or siblings is ready to grow some of Gramma’s onions.
I’ve been thinking about God’s abundance, too. Gramma freely gave of what she had to her family. For some they may have thought that she had little, but what she had, she gave and God somehow made it abundant! I think of the thousands (I mean that literally) books that my Gramma read and passed along to various people. I, myself was the recipient in my life of hundreds of books that Gramma had read and passed along. And, then there’s the seeds, plants, and knowledge that she passed along and God again made what she gave so abundant. When I look at Gramma’s Onions and I think about separating them and sharing them with other people, I think about the economy of the Kingdom of God and how there is no scarcity. The world operates from the thinking that all resources are scarce and it assigns value based on scarcity. God’s economy says, there is enough for all.
When I look at Gramma’s Onions, I remember the love she had for me, the way she always shared what she had with her family, and I’m reminded of her faithfulness and the faithfulness of a Good God who always provides enough.
