The Penny Pack that Inspired Children to Become Lifetime Growers

Of all the catalogs that have come and gone from our mailboxes over the decades, seed catalogs still arrive and still bring the same joy and excitement as when I was just a little girl. My grandparents got a big paper catalog from Gurney’s each winter. I would spend hours looking at all the vegetable pictures and imagine someday having my very own garden. My grandparents grew an acre garden- more on that for another story. I loved watching them plant, got excited as the plants came up and at least in my mind, was helpful in harvesting. Being a lifelong grower though, I believe was because of this fun little square I found one year (around 1980) in that catalog. It was a form for a Kid’s Penny Pack of seeds. I showed it to my grandparents and asked if I could get one. They looked at the form and explained that it cost a penny and that I had to earn the penny. And it did. The form explicitly stated that the cost of the seed pack had to be earned. I can’t remember what chore I was given, but whatever it was I got the work done, filled out the form and taped my penny to it. When my grandparents’ seed order arrived, there was a huge pack of seeds in it, the Kid Penny Pack. This is where the magic happened. There were all kinds of seeds. You could guess a few obvious ones, corn, peas and such, but for the most part it was a mystery. I was given the specified amount of space needed in the garden for the seeds and we got to planting.

Just think of going to that row of radishes you planted and watching for radish greens to pop up through the soil. Now, imagine going out every day looking at little seedlings and wondering what they might be. All but one of the plants grew into vegetables I knew, and I was very proud of them. The one I didn’t recognize had me perplexed. Whatever it was it was growing below the ground and it was… purple! I had never seen a turnip nor eaten one. So, when we finally dug it up in August, I entered it in the county fair. I don’t think I won anything, but I was so excited to show off the big purple thing I grew.

Gurney’s doesn’t sell the Kid’s Penny Pack anymore, but that shouldn’t stop you from gifting a child the same experience. Find a large envelope and fill it up with different seeds that do well being direct sowed, keeping in mind how much space they’ll take up (definitely skip the tomatoes). You’ll be sowing more than vegetables whether you give it as a gift or add the rule of them needing to earn the seeds.

Audrey L Elder

Fourteen Acre Wood