Ernest Littlejohn Garden – Ernest Littlejohn

0:01	Ernestine Littlejohn’s Introduction and Background
1:09	Inspiration and Initial Steps in Farming
3:58	Types of Crops and Farming Methods
6:23	Challenges and Learning Experiences
10:07	Resources and Community Support
14:08	Unexpected Challenges and Technological Adaptations
16:54	Memories of Her Mother’s Garden
30:19	Personal Motivation and Future Plans
38:55	Community and Cultural Connections
47:47	Final Reflections and Broader Impact

Makayla Brooks 00:00:00
This is Makayla Brooks on November 23rd, 2024, for the Queen’s Garden Food Shed interviews. So, to start off, can you start by introducing yourself and a little bit about yourself?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:00:16
Yes, my name is Ernestine Little John and I’ve been living here in the Carolinas now for close to 20 years. However, I’m originally from up north– Connecticut. And you don’t find a whole lot of farmers up there, but living here in the south, uh, definitely has been an inspiration to me making that change. But that’s pretty much it.

Makayla Brooks 00:00:43
What inspired you to start farming? And what was your journey like leading up to this point so far?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:00:54
Good question. I actually have a story to that. When I lived up north as a kid, my mother, who is from South Carolina, Had a garden and I grew up in a house, and she turned the entire backyard, literally, into a farming backyard. When I tell you she planted every kind of produce you can think of, and I’m a young kid, but all I knew is that when it was time to pick tomatoes, when it was time to shuck corn, when it was time to snap peas, I just helped her do all this in the kitchen. And I just thought it was a cool thing that she has like rows and rows of, you know, I didn’t know where she learned it from, but I’m a kid, so I’m just doing whatever she said to do, but I just felt like it was great to kind of pick your food out of the backyard and it would be dinner. So fast forward. Again, that was when I was a kid, but it was a fond memory of mines I had as a kid. So fast forward, less than a year ago, my mom passed away. And that was when I realized everything that she did instilled in me, a part of what she was in my life, things that was most outstanding. Uh, they were there in my memory, but I didn’t have her. And I wanted to kind of pay homage to her in some kind of way. And I said to myself, gosh, why, why didn’t I do these things sooner? Why I, you know, I was following in her footsteps. She taught me so much, but I said, it’s never too late. So that is where the true inspiration came from this year. I said, I’m gonna do it. I’m going to do it. And I kind of really started it. like right after she passed away last year and I started reading, I started watching so many videos. I started trying to get an understanding of how do you get this started because I really never had done it before. And I started buying, I bought a raised garden bed and all this other tools and stuff that I thought I would need. Because I wanted to have everything. And, you know, of course I bought all my seeds cause I’m starting from seed, you know, and that, you know, again, that was the inspiration that led me to start this project. Because it was, like I said, it was something that she did. She, it was like she knew how to do it. She had to think about it. She had the talent. And I said, well, that has to be in me somewhere. So I got to start somewhere. And that was where the inspiration began.

Makayla Brooks 00:03:56
what types of crops did, are you planning to start growing?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:04:01
Well, what I have grown so far, in fact, if you look, there’s the harvest of my last tomatoes and, uh, those Roma tomatoes. And I did cucumbers tomato basil bell peppers Ginger and white potatoes, which I potatoes are still out there

Makayla Brooks 00:04:31
are you adopted like do you do you have like a specific method of how you’re farming these crops? Like, I know larger farms they use like no till cover cropping and another smaller farmer, said he Uh, uses the soil, like he digs up the soil, from deeper in the ground.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:04:55
Right, so, because I know our soil here is a lot of clay, I did go to a home store, Lowe’s and I purchased a lot of soil, as much as possible, so I can fill the raised bed, as well as other larger pots. That’s how I, uh, did my soil, but I also add compost. So I started a little compost from scraps in the kitchen just to add nutrients to the soil as well.

Makayla Brooks 00:05:28
Do you use fertilizers?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:05:30
I don’t.

Makayla Brooks 00:05:31
No, at all?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:05:32
Mm mm. Not, I mean, just, just the compost. So I have a, my raised bed also has a greenhouse cover. So I try to protect them. That way I was trying to make everything organic as possible. Mm

Makayla Brooks 00:05:47
mm. does the cover help you with like any wildlife that might have, do you have issues with wildlife?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:05:56
I didn’t know I was, if I was going to or not. So I protected it just in case. Do I see stray cats back there? Yeah, I do. So I don’t have, no, I don’t, I’ve not had any issues because a lot of the harvests that I’ve gotten so far is not damaged or anything like that. A lot of times you got to still keep it on cover so bees can pollinate. To help the group as well.

Makayla Brooks 00:06:21
do you garden here or somewhere else

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:06:25
here?

Makayla Brooks 00:06:27
Did Do would you say it’s a good spot to be farming like the like did you did you consider going somewhere else?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:06:38
No, this is I this is the only place I would be so I Yes, it’s definitely a good spot for me Because i’m doing it on such a smaller scale, right?

Makayla Brooks 00:06:52
What were the biggest challenges Uh, when you started, when you first started. Oh, man.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:07:02
Well, when I started with seeding, I thought that everything that I planted and seeded was going to grow. But what I realized is that you can see a lot of rows, say, of peppers. But once they’re transferred into the larger ground, not all of them will necessarily survive. Same thing with my cucumbers and my tomato plants. So I did a lot. So it kind of taught me that I may have anticipated more than I actually received. But that was just a lesson learned sometimes it just depends on you know, if the ground I believe This is what i’m learning was too crammed Too and I think I may have planted things a little too close together So next go around i’ll learn to space things out a lot better. It was overcrowded overcrowded. Definitely. Yeah

Makayla Brooks 00:08:11
Did you see like seeking any advice from anyone else with like more experience? You

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:08:18
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Actually, I spoke with one of my co workers who grew up on a farm and I had a lot of questions as I was going through the, you know, through the process, through the journey. So definitely seek advice from someone who knew. Again, I didn’t have my mom here anymore to ask her. So, I did.

Makayla Brooks 00:08:41
What were some of the things you learned?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:08:44
Oh, I learned that location, temperature, water, the amount. I mean, I was just starting. There’s a lot I hadn’t experienced. So understanding how, you know, often it needed to be watered, the sun, the position, understanding the pollination, understanding how long it would take. And the expectation, because at one point I didn’t think it was going to happen. Uh, I didn’t know that these, a lot of these, you know, the vegetables come directly from a flower that’s on the plant. So you wait for the flower, then you know, you know, your crop is coming shortly after. So, those were really the things to learn. Because I would, what I would do is I would take pictures. Of what it looks like now, you know, when it was smaller and I’d send him, okay, what would you know, look at it now, you know, what does it look like? Or this is what I’m looking at. You know, I try to share visuals. So I can get better answers to help me.

Makayla Brooks 00:10:07
What resources were most helpful when you got started? Like financial, technical, community, or communal?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:10:18
The most helpful resource was, I would say, you know, just having, the space, having a place. Having the ability to take my time and, you know, just to build it all. So I would say just, you know, the finances weren’t an issue cause I’m learning that it doesn’t really take a lot when you’re doing a smaller level on a smaller level. However, you know, you need to be able to have the space. You need to be able to, you know, have sunlight, you know, just, But, yeah.

Makayla Brooks 00:11:21
Are there any certain practices that you’ve been consistent with, or are you still figuring out what types of methods you want to use?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:11:32
I’m still in the learning stage. I’m still trying to figure it out. In fact, so since I’ve already harvested some of the vegetables that are not gonna probably, you know because we’re out of season now. It just taught me, okay, I know what to do next time. I’ve even purchased, like for my tomatoes, I’ve purchased self watering pots with the trellis so they can grow up. I didn’t expect, I didn’t know that, you know, what to expect. Same thing with cucumbers. I didn’t know that was going to be a long stretched out vine. So I learned to get other things that would help the development of the nature’s crop and what I got still growing now are things that will grow even through the winter. But again, it’s still, I’m still learning.

Makayla Brooks 00:12:36
So you said you’re composting. So, are you going to keep doing more organic methods?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:12:47
Yes. I was encouraged to do that by a few friends I have that are also growing, including my sister. She and I are both doing this this year, you know, not this year, but you know, we started this, for the same purpose. But, uh, those friends that I have that are already composting and understanding how that enriches the soil and makes it better for your crops to grow and makes it stronger, make it healthier, things of that sort, I’m going to continue to compost. So, I have an inside compost bin. And I have a larger outside compost bin.

Makayla Brooks 00:13:32
Have you connected with any local bigger organizations or farmer’s markets or anything like that, or do you plan to?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:13:42
No, no, I haven’t, and I don’t. This is Personal.

Makayla Brooks 00:13:49
hmm. So you don’t intend to sell?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:13:53
No, not now. It’s gonna work through this way. Not now. This is on a small scale, but if this becomes something that I start to, you know, feel I have a niche, and I may have the desire to expand, who knows, then I can sell personally.

Makayla Brooks 00:14:12
what’s been the most unexpected challenge?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:14:23
Unexpected challenge probably just happened, uh, when I realized that I kind of started my tomatoes late and here in the South and being that we’re in the, we’re still in the fall season, right? Well, I, we were just kind of got our first frost. And so the unexpected challenge was I had these tomatoes, several of them still on the vine, and then I realized when I read because again, I’m constantly reading that they will not survive frost, frozen soil. They will not. And I could lose. And so I know there’s a frost coming. They say, go ahead and harvest what you have. So that was unexpected. And it was just interesting that I happened to get that information at the last minute just in time because we just had like 33 degrees at night times here, you know, cold in the night time so it was unexpected because I was like, oh tomorrow I gotta harvest what I got left and with that being said That’s what you see. But that was unexpected. Because, again, I’m still learning as I go. I could have missed and lost what I had out there. Because at this moment, the rest of that plant is now dying. The leaves are turning black. It’s not going to survive the rest. Right.

Makayla Brooks 00:15:59
Are you using new technologies that most farmers might not be using?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:16:11
I don’t know what other farmers use. Again, when I just purchased the self-watering, again; that’s a new method for me because I am Just learning how important it is to make sure that it’s got that those nutrients outside of just rainwater, especially in the summertime when we can get droughts. So that’s what I think will be helpful for me coming next time around.

Makayla Brooks 00:16:46
So do you have any plans for like conserving water and soil, or do you just? No. Um. Okay. Uh, do you have any, uh, stories that you’d like to share, from when you were in your mother’s garden?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:17:12
Well, good question. I, you know, my memory takes me back there only because that was one of the fondest times of growing up as a kid. You know, you don’t realize how much you developed or appreciated, uh, from, you know, what your parents do and have done, you know, cause they’re just doing their job and, then when you want to just really hold on to those memories, you was like, okay, how can I bring it back? How can I bring it back? So, you know, when I was, young, again, I remember sitting in the My mother would bring in whatever she harvested. You know, and, she would, uh, have us, I mean, I remember shoving the corns that she used to throw corn on the cob, and, you know, the peas, and, so, you know, those are the most fondest memories, uh, it was fun to me as a kid because it was almost like Playing a game, you know, how fast can I get it done? You know because I was really trying to get mom’s approval to say good job So as a kid, that was like a little happy place for me. It’s like I did I helped toward Dinner that was gonna be prepared say that weekend, or you know, A lot of the things she froze and we always had vegetable always had vegetables One of the other things, too was grabbing a tomato right off the vine, red, biting right into it like it was an apple. Back then, uh, everything was organic. I don’t think she used any kind of pesticides per se, but you know, she had enough knowledge to know how to protect them and care for crops. So it’s like I can vaguely remember watching her out there in the garden. I can still see how big the garden was. But, you know, again, as a kid, the part that was most memorable was my participation in the preparation.

Makayla Brooks 00:19:33
have you noticed any, like, sort of traditions or rituals that you might have she might have believed in that helped grow her crops? What are some things you’ve learned about yourself when starting to grow your own crops?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:20:09
I learned that, and this may be something pretty simple, but I can accomplish whatever I put my mind to. And, uh, when I made the decision that this was something I want to try, So many other people have done it, talked about it in the past, and I was always in the mindset of getting ready to do something like that. So, I made a decision, a conscious decision to stop talking about it and to be about it, especially now. It was like a sign, so. I killed the self doubt or even thinking that this just wasn’t me because I wanted to do it. I realized, oh absolutely, it’s me. It’s not the thing to be me.

Makayla Brooks 00:21:03
So you do it year-round?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:21:06
I just started, so it will be. Yes, I plan to do it year round. Yes, I’m completing my first year, so.

Makayla Brooks 00:21:14
you, so you said you’ve, this, you’ve already harvested the tomatoes right?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:21:24
I mean, I don’t think anymore. There’s a few more on there. I don’t think they’re gonna make it through the distance only because this week we got crossed at nighttime. However, I harvest everything that was left. Those will, as you can see, they’re already turning. They will turn and ripen.

Makayla Brooks 00:21:44
I know you’re pretty new to it, but uh, what’s been most rewarding so far? Yeah.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:21:57
Eating my cucumbers in a salad, eating my tomatoes, sharing them. I have shared them with other friends, uh, and my sister and my family. That was rewarding and just really realizing how fresh, fresh, fresh produce, like straight from the garden, is; there’s a difference. And what you buy in the store and with the taste is what I’m saying. So, you know, that was rewarding, you know, to say, you know, I do this, I didn’t have to go and buy this and then enjoy it as well.

Makayla Brooks 00:22:41
Have you saved a lot? Have you saved much more, growing the money?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:22:47
Yes, for what I use it for, absolutely. And it’s also shown me that the savings potential can definitely be greater. So it’s made me think more about what else I want to grow. So I just kind of chose a few things to start off with. But I intend to kind of double that by doing greens and cabbage and you know a lot more other vegetation that I’ll have the whole full year to you know crop.

Makayla Brooks 00:23:30
What was your crop yield this time, if you know?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:23:34
You mean the things that I’ve grown? Yeah, what did I mention? The green peppers, tomatoes. Cucumbers. I got a beautiful cucumber. Ginger, white potatoes, basil. Yes, that’s it. I tried to do green beans, but they didn’t come. It was too congested. I’m learning. Yeah. Because what I also learned is there are certain vegetables that grow better with certain vegetables. Yeah. And then others don’t. So you got to learn how to kind of couple them together or put them together or what not to Put together so it

Makayla Brooks 00:24:22
It sounds like you’re growing a lot. How many rows do you have? How like how big is your like garden right now? It’s not

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:24:38
it’s not big at all. Well, I thought it was gonna be bigger. But like I said, I’m learning something about, you know, spacing. The intention was, oh, I would have probably had six rows, but it’s okay. I was happy to see that, you know, something, some of, of what I planted continued to grow, whereas it may have been overcrowding for others. Um,

Makayla Brooks 00:25:21
So you said that you don’t plan to sell anytime soon, right?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:25:27
I said what i’m sorry

Makayla Brooks 00:25:28
You don’tplan to sell anytime soon?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:25:31
No I think I’m enjoying doing it and learning it that I’m I just want to be real quick. Yeah

Makayla Brooks 00:25:44
I know some places have like community gardens or they have like community events that they-

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:25:56
Yeah, I’ve heard of that. I know some people who say that, you know, everybody kind of contributes to growing stuff in their community garden. You know, I don’t have that in here where I live, but I, you know, my next door neighbor over here, they’ve grown a lot of stuff too. They give me stuff and tell me anytime I want things. They have like a peach tree right here on our fence. So I guess within our small community, we kind of will share amongst each other, but we don’t have a garden which we grow collectively. Right.

Makayla Brooks 00:26:41
You do a lot of research. What kinds of sources do you use? Like, what do you seek out?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:27:01
Besides people who I know have done this, uh, I Google a lot, uh, and I check a lot of different resources, uh, through Google. I’m trying to think what else. That’s mainly because there are so many different resources there. So I’m reading different resources, but. Initially, that’s where it comes

Makayla Brooks 00:27:34
Let’s start going back to, like, how you started. Your mother had a garden. Was there a particular reason she had such a big, that she started gardening?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:27:48
That’s how she grew up.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:27:50
She grew up with a farm. Mm hmm. These things that she knew were kind of natural to her. She didn’t have to do the research. She had the experience, But that experience stayed with her. So even though she moved to the north and raised us in the north That was some of the south that she brought along with her.

Makayla Brooks 00:28:16
Do you notice a difference between northern gardening?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:28:20
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I can tell you the biggest difference is the soil. I just happen to be in a region here in North Carolina where the soil is red, it’s clay. You have better dark brown soil up north that you can just dig straight into the ground. You can turn it and plant directly in it. Here, you know, you have to, it can choke uh, so I buy the soil and then you just, you know, you can nourish it from there. So that’s the difference.

Makayla Brooks 00:29:10
Did you have a specific diet? When you were younger, was it mainly, did you notice your diet was different than other families that didn’t garden, or were you surrounded by many gardeners and people who had their own farms?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:29:25
I wasn’t surrounded. Definitely, if I were to compare myself to other kids or school kids that I was growing up with, my diet was different in the fact that we lived in a house with a large enough space to, you know, for my mother to, so basically what I’m saying is it’s different because I probably ate more organic food or, you know, grown, uh, produce than others that I, that I knew that didn’t have that ability. You know, it’s a difference, uh, in canned, you know, frozen or canned vegetables, whereas the majority of mine’s came right out of my garden.

Makayla Brooks 00:30:17
Do you plan on canning?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:30:26
I’m gonna say yes. I gotta learn some more about it. And the reason why I’m saying yes is because. I was inspired by my brother to always grow tomatoes because he was giving me ideas of other, other things. You can make tomato sauce, you can freeze it, you can use tomatoes for so many other things of course. So it’s not like it grows, you gotta eat it, and then it’s done. I can grow enough to where I can do more things with it, preserve it. Forward. So that has been the, the, the plan, the idea, uh, as far as tomatoes are concerned. Of course, I’m going to grow other vegetables and maybe you can’t like cucumbers, but, for those I can, yes. I haven’t considered fruit yet, but we’ll see.

Makayla Brooks 00:31:19
so your brother gardens as well?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:31:27
I think he’s, I think he’s planted some stuff, but no, he doesn’t.

Makayla Brooks 00:31:34
Do you have any siblings that do?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:31:39
My sister, my sister does. She’s done a little bit more than me. She’s grown a lot of collard greens and cabbage and other greenery, green vegetables that I haven’t grown yet, but I’m gonna add it to my list.

Makayla Brooks 00:32:00
Mm hmm. So you, do you plan on expanding? Yeah, oh yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:32:07
Um. I got, I got the, I got the bug.

Makayla Brooks 00:32:11
Yeah. When do you anticipate doing that, expanding?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:32:18
Well, in a couple of months, because there are certain times of the year that you can plant, you know, you can start your seeding, and it’s just the weather, you know, so right now, you know, experimenting, kind of have some good things, like my potatoes. This is the time that they grow and then I harvest them I think February or sometime but I as far as expanding it’s like okay starting early enough at the end of the winter or spring to start Putting in the vegetables for that period and then continuing through the summer. So this way I Always have something that I can harvest year round

Makayla Brooks 00:33:06
how are you going to avoid overcrowding? With that if you’re going to go bigger

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:33:12
So I had to think about another thing. I’m gonna buy another raised bed and make a larger area so I can spread everything out

Makayla Brooks 00:33:26
So, how long has your sister been doing gardening?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:33:30
We both started. Oh, you’re both started. Yeah, okay We started very first this year.

Makayla Brooks 00:33:36
So is it new things you’re learning or are you trying to incorporate things? You might remember that your mom might have done?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:33:45
Both, you know, when I think about What my mom did, You know, in my mind, it was perfect. It was like, I was a kid, you know, they all look perfect. If there were any issues, she knew it, but I didn’t. You know, I was just amazed at what I saw. Just amazed at how good she was.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:34:12
From onions to banana. She knew how to grow root vegetables, which are, to me, I think is a challenge because these are things that are growing underneath. I’m learning where not to put the guesswork in when it’s time to harvest.

Makayla Brooks 00:34:37
do you get like a lot of support from other people?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:34:41
Yes. I get a lot of support from friends, uh, as well as my sister, you know, so it’s like we’re taking this journey together. And so a lot of times when we talk, it includes, uh, updates, you know. She’ll send me pictures. I’ll send her pictures stuff like that. I have, uh, like I said, a few friends here who are also growing and we just share pictures, and I think that just helps us learn as well. so yeah.

Makayla Brooks 00:35:18
what other types of inspiration from larger farmers that you might have spoken to have you taken?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:35:27
well, I haven’t I wouldn’t say spoken to, But I do go to Charlotte’s uh regional farmers market often enough, and because I’m like, okay, I want some fresh, you know, I want some farm-raised vegetables, and I like to go there. But What it’s also done has made me realize I can grow this. I can go there, and I think about the things that I use the most, the things that I cook the most, And that I would want to go to the farmer’s market and get and so now it’s just a moment motivated me to You know add that to my list of okay. This is what I’m gonna start expanding out and adding to trying.

Makayla Brooks 00:36:19
Is it hard balancing work, life, and farming? Not at all. So, for the self-watering system, you use your hose water.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:36:38
I will, but I was, uh, informed, I was told by a friend who farms, who grew up on a farm, that rainwater is better, and it’s always good when they’re collecting, uh, your crops are collecting water from, you know, from raining. With that being said, because sometimes you have, you can go weeks without any rain; it’s just not a bad idea since plants would respond better to the rainwater. To find a way to collect it and use it in my self watering containers that I have for, well, I have some right now that I’ve recently purchased for my, for tomatoes for the next crop.

Makayla Brooks 00:37:33
Would you consider, again, like using like big, cause I know some places have the big kind of like water jugs that you can attach to a hose, and you can collect rainwater.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:37:52
When you said attached to a hose?

Makayla Brooks 00:37:54
Like some kind of, what’s it called? A siphoning tool?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:37:59
Oh, and it disperses the rainwater? I don’t know. I don’t know. I think in this process, When I see the big difference, that would either motivate me or not as far as taking it to that, that level. But again, in my journey, I’m still doing a lot of research because ultimately, I want to be as effective with this as my mother was. I, again, I wish I asked these questions before she left us, but, you know, you wonder when a person just knows how to do it, it’s like, all right, well, you know, what’s, what’s the strategy? What’s the skill? What’s the, so I’m still developing that and that’s how I’m gonna make a lot of my decisions.

Makayla Brooks 00:38:59
Right. Did she sell, like, did she sell crops or was it just, At home.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:39:08
At home, yeah. It was a lot, but you know, she had a family, so there was enough for us to eat. But she also, she didn’t sell, but my mother also fed a lot of other people as well. So, a lot of friends, you know, family came around. We had a lot of local family she shared.

Makayla Brooks 00:39:32
And this was in Connecticut? Connecticut. Okay. Yeah, I’ve noticed that. I have my roommate, who is from Connecticut and, she talks a lot about how they have a lot of family over. I’ve noticed that a lot from when I do that. Is that like a, like a cultural kind of, or like

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:39:53
when you say having a lot of family..?

Makayla Brooks 00:39:55
like many guests, family, and events.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:39:57
Interesting. I thought it was just the way I was raised. My, they were our house was the place that was, yeah. So we did it a lot. I, that’s the thing I grew up with when it was. A holiday, I don’t care what holiday of the year it was, our place was a gathering place and even randomly not. So my mother did this a lot, maybe it was, I don’t know, probably because we had so much family, you know. What happened, just to give you a little backstory, a lot of my family came from the south, a lot. Mother’s side and father’s side came from the migrated to the north during times when that was And I think that’s the best thing to do.

Makayla Brooks 00:40:44
What decade was that? Like, what year? What do you say? Probably in the 40s? 1940s? 50s? Yeah. That makes sense.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:40:58
Yeah. And what happened is when, they, they migrated north, and then they all had their families. So, you know, they were young, but they had, you know, You know, they’re kids. And so I grew up around a lot of cousins, aunts, uncles, both sides, knowing that my roots were from the South, although we all live up North, my point was, that’s how they got up North. It was the thing to do during that timeframe. So we had gatherings all the time. I don’t know if that was even something that they did a lot in the summer, but. or maybe it’s a southern thing that they brought north because again, doing the gardening, that was something my mother brought north. I mean, I can name a whole bunch of other things my mother did that northerners don’t do. They don’t make their own sausage. You know, my mother, I used to watch her do all of that. You know, I didn’t want to mention this, but we even, uh, had chickens, you know, so we had fresh chickens, if you get what I’m saying.

Makayla Brooks 00:42:01
Yeah. I was asking because I know I have a note on it somewhere. I know that between like 1910 and 1970s a lot of black people moved up north because they were-

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:42:21
part of that movement. Yeah

Makayla Brooks 00:42:25
Would you say that your family had, like did you have a lot of land?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:42:30
Up north?

Makayla Brooks 00:42:31
Yeah, did you have your own land, or did they also have a garden?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:42:36
Yeah, actually I think about my father, all their nephews, their goal was to buy their own land so everybody owned a home. Um,

Makayla Brooks 00:42:55
yeah, uh, like a lot of black families left the farm behind during, uh, the great migration. Like, yeah, due to personal conditions like sharecropping and tenant farming. So would you say that that played a role in them moving up north?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:43:18
That was, yeah, that definitely played a role in them moving. I guess the good thing is that they brought, excuse me, those gifts and talents. Learn to the north. So even though I am from the north, I feel like now that we need to integrate my southern roots and I’m like, you know, plus I live in the south now. So I feel like it’s supposed to be natural, but I’m striving to learn and continue to build on it.

Makayla Brooks 00:43:58
do you have anything else to share about your experiences?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:44:13
Not much, from what I’ve already said. It’s just something that the more I, I’ve done it from seed to harvest, the more it makes me want to keep doing it. The more it has really encouraged me or motivated me, as I was going to say, motivated me. So that makes me think also, my mother, it could have been a way of life for her and that gift and just being able to spin it. Maybe that was her motivation, but definitely mine, definitely mine. So, starting small now, but who knows? Who knows?

Makayla Brooks 00:45:04
I know some smaller farmers, they don’t see themselves expanding, like, to big farms at all. Why do you think that is mostly, personally and generally?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:45:15
Speaking for me, because I like to keep it personal, some things, when you enjoy doing it, you don’t enjoy doing it. You just enjoy doing it versus doing it for a job or selling it, or doing it as something you have to do. It’s the joy, the pleasure of just seeing the outcome, just seeing, you know, what, what you started and what it’s become, but So for me, it’s just personal. if there was such thing when you mentioned earlier about a community garden, like I would probably enjoy doing something like that, you know, and everybody’s kind of got their own part, you know, I’ve got this and then. You know, it becomes one gardener community now gets to, utilize.

Makayla Brooks 00:46:22
Uh, do you anticipate getting more involved, in like more community stuff if the opportunity comes up?

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:46:28
If the opportunity comes up, I would, yes

Makayla Brooks 00:46:30
Yeah.

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:46:32
Okay.

Makayla Brooks 00:46:33
Uh, thank you for talking. You’re welcome.

Conversation with EL after Interview

Ernestine Littlejohn 00:46:39
Our ancestors were sharecropping. It was because they were on these plantations where they had to. They were for other people. but when they did it, put themselves, I’m talking about in this, you know, on their own land, when they did it, it was to feed, like you’re saying, to feed their families, to feed themselves, because they can eat whatever they grow, eat whatever you grow, eat whatever you grow. It wasn’t for prompted, or maybe it wasn’t allowed, or nobody was gonna buy, you know, from them. So, they did that community bartering. So, when you think about the history that way, That could be just a cultural thing that just kind of passed down generationally. I just never had that interest in, you know, making it a thing to where it was for profit. It was more of a, you know, I’ve called some of my friends. I’m like, come get some of these. I got all these cucumbers. You know that kind of thing because I wanted to share I wanted to say it’s what I grew I grew this myself, you know because for me it cost my time But it didn’t really cost me no money Well, I mean I you know to get the you know, everything that I needed It costs one time, but I think I just had a greater joy in what can come out of it, what I can do. I just wanted to see, you know, what the results were. I don’t know, that was it. I just wanted to see what I can do. You know, what, just, just sort of like it was a thought, now come reality, and I’m still basking in that reality. I cut up a tomato earlier, because I made a, a veggie quiche type thing. And, tomatoes on it, and it’s, uh, Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if that was instilled in me because that was just a part of my, part of my historic culture. Yeah, that was my first thought. How can I share it? How can I use it for myself or share it with others that I care about? I couldn’t even see myself randomly giving it away. So it’s not about just not selling it or giving it away. No, I’m not just trying to sell it. Give it away. I, it matters that it’s, it’s, yeah. You know, someone who shares with me, someone I care about, someone whose family, someone whose friends, or those who encourage me along the way need, I believe, because I know the generations are different. They would need a, a, a mentor, they to kind of. Go step by step, probably even to appreciate the process of doing this on your own. But I think that they won’t necessarily have to, you know, choose to follow someone. I think it may, they may need a little motivation or some inspiration from someone who can show them that it doesn’t take much or that it’s, it’s, Or show them more what can be done, like I said earlier about the tomatoes, you know, I didn’t think about, oh, tomatoes can be expanded to not just eating tomatoes where you slice them up and put them in a salad or something, but you can jar them, you can can them, you can make sauce and freeze it, you know, there’s so much more. For those today who are more into the organic, they may, uh, find that interesting. But I think the inspiration would have to come from someone who can show them that it doesn’t take much, but also understand the appreciation, the gratitude of being able to do this themselves and see where it’s maybe healthier than the stuff that we buy that’s loaded with a lot of preservatives and, you know, processed.