LANDIS PORTRAITS: A Series About the People Behind the Plants at the Arboretum - Dave Laraway10/7/2017 - Nolan Marciniec Pickled green tomatoes, dill pickles, hot garlic dill pickles, horseradish hot garlic dill pickles, pickled green beans, pickled yellow beans, bread-and-butter pickles (sugar-free available), pickled sweet gherkins – 30 types of pickles in all. And seven kinds of salsa. Jams and jellies, including garlic jelly, strawberry jam, and blueberry pie jam. All from his own garden. Dave Laraway shared his knowledge of growing and preserving when he spoke to the Landis Garden Club this spring. “I was impressed by how nice the people were. I felt right at home. It felt like family,” he remembered. In August, the club members had an opportunity to sample some of his pickled products and tour his extensive gardens. Dave said he hoped to communicate his message of self-sufficiency and to demonstrate what it can accomplish. Dave learned this philosophy from his rural upbringing in Huntersland, NY. In those days, he said, gardens were not a luxury but a necessity, and gardens fed the family all year round. He gardens today the way his parents and grandparents did. Indeed, many of the vegetables in his garden are those passed down in the family for five generations – including a unique purple-mottled white potato with yellow flesh. Since Dave raises all his vegetables himself, over time he has been selecting for qualities he deems desirable. One of Dave’s maxims, one he inherited from his father: “If you work with Mother Nature, she will work with you every time. If you work against her, you will fail every time. Remember: she is a woman.” For example, he counsels the use of mulches such as grass clippings and hay or straw to hold down weeds: “Weed once a week, a pleasure. Weed once a month, a chore.” More than that, mulching enriches the soil and controls soil-borne diseases. In the spring, that mulch is tilled in along with manure from his chickens. Dave and his wife Darleen have been in the pickling business for 20 years. (“Dave and Darleen’s pickle palace: a pickle for every palate” is their motto.) They’ve been restoring their 1832 Sloansville farmhouse since 1980. To say that you own a house is a misconception, Dave quipped: a house owns you. The house is replete with a commercial kitchen for their pickling projects. Dave and Darleen’s products are available at the Sunnycrest Garlic Festival and the Holiday Festival – and, of course, they have a considerable list of loyal customers. Dave retired from managing over 200 apartments in Cobleskill three years ago – for about three weeks. “It just about killed me,” he said. He then agreed to return to the Noble Ace Hardware Store in Cobleskill, 7 days a week managing (appropriately enough) the Garden Center. This winter he will embark on still another venture: he’s writing a book, “From Seed to Jar: One Year to Self-Sufficiency.” The book, he said, is “finished in my head,” and will include recipes garnered over five generations, although more than half are his own creations. Dave’s understanding and respect for Nature have found a receptive audience at Landis. As the members of the Garden Club can attest, Dave’s gardens are a testimony to his methods: organic, healthy, and productive. As he noted, we are family -- although few of us possess Dave’s limitless energy!
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