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Show "Pioneer II" . , i -i boys get to spit cherry pits into the bucket. The record is three out of five pits in the bucket. Distance is another matter. Again a new record was set. Jacob spit a cherry pit 25 feet and 2 inches. In just three days we Utahns will pause to celebrate the entrance of the first Mormon pioneers into what we now call the Salt Lake valley. Imagine how these people felt after an arduous journey of some 1,300 miles and this was the place. Within days, some had turned water onto the parched soil and began to plow. Just 10 years earlier, in 1837, a fellow by the name of John Deere had invented a new non sticking plow in his blacksmith shop. Imagine starting your garden in late July with the hopes of getting any kind of crop before the first frost ended the growing season. There were no cherry trees or apricot trees just waiting to be harvested. There were no garden centers with plants, trees, seeds and pesticides to control hungry insects. There were no stores stocked full of groceries, with fresh milk. There were no sporting goods stores where they could pick up by Mark Bezzant There are some beautiful gardens this year in Pleasant Grove. Some in our community have spent years working the soil to get conditions just right. At Bob Shoell's funeral his son talked about how his father grew a beautiful garden every year. Bob even mastered the art of growing perfect onions. Bob was in the automotive business but he loved to garden. The other day I drove down 1100 North and saw the Hardmans out working in their yard. She was tending to the beautiful flowers, while he was working in the vegetable garden. The Hardmans always keep such a lovely place. You can't always see the beautiful gardens from the road. Often they are tucked away behind a home. Just east of the "Old Bell School" and log cabin sits one such garden. For years Fern Harris lived there next to a home owned by the Wadley family. Every year Fern and the Wadleys would grow the most beautiful garden and they still do. Those who go walking, jogging and biking in the mornings get to see our community up close. You get a different perspective when you are out of an automobile. Up in Battle Creek we have lots of these people. The cherry pickers love to greet these early risers when they go by and give them a sample of Bezzant cherries. Speaking of cherries, the cherry season is now history and the first apricots are ripe. In an earlier article, I mentioned that we like to keep the fun in farm and after the harvest, the boys who helped harvest, had a great time with the cherry related contests. New records were set. The old record was eight seconds for tying a cherry stem into a knot, in your mouth, using only your tongue. The new record is six seconds. Try it some time. The old record for the most cherries in your mouth was 28. The new record is 49. We use an old metal picking bucket Grandpa Bezzant owned for the accuracy contest. We place the bucket 10 feet away and the a fresh supply of ammunition or a new gun to go hunting for local game. On the south side of the Battle Creek orchard is an area left much like these pioneers would have found it. Each year the sego lilies bloom. Pioneers had to eat the roots of what is now our state flower. One year I dug up a Sego Lily and tried one of the roots. It gave me a new appreciation for these determined pioneers. Brigham Young feared one thing more than starvation, pestilence or an army sent from Washington. He feared most the day his people would prosper and forget the God who had preserved them and led them here. I reminded the cherry pickers, when they saw the clear water from the slopes of Mt Timpanogos, flow down the furrows near the trees they were picking on that "cherry heaven" existed because of pioneers who had a vision of Zion and the willingness to make that vision a reality. |