16-18 apricious was the adjective one New Englander used to characterize Spring weather. Unlike Fall, New England's Spring weather is hard to celebrate - unless, of course, you are a gardener or farmer dependent on the seasonal cycle. At the Village, the return of Spring is eagerly awaited. Stores of food and fodder are running low.
Thoughts turn to gardens and fields and plowing and planting.
But one cannot be too eager, for planting dates vary widely from year to year, even in the same central Massachusetts garden. Aaron White of Boylston, Mass., planted peas early in April 1836, but that was no guarantee of an early harvest for the entire garden. In 1840, when the Whites planted their peas at the end of April, there was no late frost. By April, food supplies stored over the Winter might be dwindling. Lydia Maria Child, author of The American Frugal Housewife , urged her readers to check what was left in storage.