By: Jim Langham

The year I grew succotash

Although I usually think of succotash as some type of blend of corn and lima beans, I will never forget about the spring when I grew a varied form of the delightful dish in our Michigan garden.

It was 1983, a year in which winter had been quite sparse, similar to what we’ve had this year. At the time, I was a “young man” of 35 and filled with energy in anticipation of planting garden. When the mild weather continued into early March, I exercised my zeal by planting several rows of potatoes in the first week of March.

Many around me were skeptical of that early planting; in fact, that skepticism was fed well two weeks later when we had the biggest snowstorm of the entire winter and temperatures dropped back to zero for several mornings. Then followed a cold and wet spring and the potatoes were nowhere to be found.