The words in the Nursery Rhyme ‘Here We Go Gathering Nuts In May’ are troubling. Where are the nuts in May? Cold and frosty mornings are not too common in May, but as vegetable gardeners we are well aware that there is a risk of frost in May.
May 1st was an important day in the Irish farming calendar. The end of winter was celebrated with the gathering of flowers, dancing around bonfires or May poles, and one very special activity usually performed by Irish children – the making of a May bush. This activity ensured a plentiful harvest in the coming months.
The children collected the ‘nuts’ and used them to build the May Bush. The ‘nuts’ were actually bunches of flowers collected from the hedgerows. The word was originally knots, and referred to knots or bunches of flowers.
As far as the frost mentioned in the rhyme is concerned, there are plenty of recordings of frost in Ireland during May. So perhaps this nursery rhyme ‘Here we come gathering nuts in May’ originated in Ireland?
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Here we go gathering nuts in May,
Nuts in May, nuts in May.
Here we go gathering nuts in May,
On a cold and frosty morning.
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This rhyme was one of the anthems sung in the Dig For Victory Campaign.
It may help present day vegetable gardeners as they find muscles they did not know they had!
*Dig! Dig! Dig! And your muscles will grow big *
* Keep on pushing the spade*
*Don’t mind the worms *
*Just ignore their squirms *
*And when your back aches *
*laugh with glee *
*And keep on diggin’ *
*Till we give our foes a Wiggin’ *
*Dig! Dig! Dig! to Victory”*
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Five Fat Peas
Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest.
They grew and grew
And did not stop,
Until one day
The pod went POP!
Rub-A-Dub-Dub
Rub-a-dub-dub
Three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker,
The candlestick maker,
They all jumped out of a rotten potato!
Turn ‘em out knaves all three.
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We have just found “The Garden Song” which sums up vegetable gardening
and everything involved in ‘Grow Your Own’.
The first verse goes:
“Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground”
The rest of the song can be found by clicking this link
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