‘Farmer Crawford’ and a monster zucchini

Retired schoolteacher never stops educating and having fun doing it

TORONTO -- Even though Connie Crawford retired from a 35-year teaching career nearly 15 years ago, helping children learn new things is still one of her passionate pursuits.

And having fun in the process -- as much for the Toronto-area woman as the students -- makes it all the richer of an experience, especially when it involves the story of "a monster zucchini" not only in a book but from her very own unlikely garden spot at her home.

In her capacity as a member of the promotion and education committee for the Jefferson County Farm Bureau, Crawford makes the rounds each year to area schools interested in having their students hear a special presentation on the American Farm Bureau Foundation's Book of the Year.

In this case it was "How to Grow a Monster," occasion for Connie Crawford the retired teacher to don bib overalls and a straw hat and become Farmer Crawford when she visited the first-grade classes of Amanda White, Rachael Scott and Heather Keenan at Toronto Elementary School last month.

There the students listened to a story about the zucchini woes of a brother and sister who try to stop such vegetables from growing in their mother's garden because they're not fans of all the zucchini dishes she makes for them.

Zucchini sabotage is the siblings' approach, but it only makes conditions in which zucchini thrive.

"The brother and sister did everything they could think of to squelch the zucchini," Crawford explained, noting all their attempts, however, had just the opposite effect, whether it was plucking blossoms or unknowingly thinning the garden that only produced more.

One day, the brother discovered a giant zucchini under the leaves and decides the "green nuke monster" is pretty cool, according to Crawford, who delivers not just an animated story but lessons along the way, whether it involves counting and problem-solving or understanding pollination.

The siblings research what to do with the giant zucchini and discover that planting marigolds, for example, deters bugs from bothering it.

A bit fearful that their mother would find more zucchini recipes to try, the siblings are relieved and surprised by their mother's idea to take the monster zucchini to the county fair, where they win first place and look forward to growing a whole garden of monster zucchinis the following year.

Crawford surprised the students and teachers with a monster zucchini of her own, extracting it with fanfare from a bag after she'd produced far smaller versions.

The monster zucchini measured 17 inches and weighed 19 pounds.

Crawford explained that it was a volunteer zucchini plant that took root and prospered unbeknownst to her.

"A volunteer is what they call a plant where the seed blows away or birds take the seed and they're off by themselves and they grow where they're not planted. It's not in this book, but I told the kids about it anyway," Crawford said.

"This zucchini plant came up in the gravel between my garage and the (Knoxville) fire hall," she said, noting she has zucchini growing elsewhere. "I picked zucchini by the ton, bucketfuls from the garden, and I'd take them to the Toronto pool every day, and I gave them away," she said of what earns her the title "the Zucchini Lady of the Toronto Pool."

Crawford didn't think any more about the rogue zucchini plant until the beginning of October when she was pulling up everything left over from her garden.

"I went up there to pull that one out, and there was this monster zucchini, and I picked it," she said.

She stored it in a spare refrigerator. "It lasted two months in the refrigerator without a mark on it. It was solid and bright green."

Crawford's monster zucchini looked more like a watermelon.

"On the bottom it had all these scratch marks, and I think that's from growing in the gravel," she said.

"We had a lot of fun with it," she added.

Crawford put the zucchini in an orange bag and had it covered before she dramatically extracted it to the amazement of her attentive audience.

"It was a lot of fun," she said. "After I read the whole story and showed them a little zucchini and measured it, then I pulled out the biggie," she said.

Since Crawford retired, she has continued in teaching capacities such as this. "I've been doing this 15 years or more," she said of the once-an-educator, always-an-educator school of thought.

"We have the promotion and education committee with the farm bureau, I'm on that, and Jeanne Roberts is the head of it," Crawford said, noting she volunteers at the Jefferson County Fair in the booth for the P&E Committee, doing games and stories for children. One year she dressed up as a cow and made up games, including a cow patty throw.

Crawford taught in Edison schools for 35 years.

"I started at Stanton for 10 years, then I went to Pleasant Hill and Knoxville, and then I went to Jefferson Union when it was still Jefferson Union, and Richmond Elementary a good many years," she said.

"I took a year off to complete my doctorate in education out in Albuquerque, at the University of New Mexico and then when I came back, I was doing a dissertation using kindergarten students and I asked Edison if they would put me where the most kindergarten students were and that was out at John Gregg so I spent the remainder of my career at John Gregg and Richmond Elementary," she said.

As a volunteer with the Pleasant Hill School House Museum, Crawford enjoys teaching opportunities there as well when students visit usually in the late spring to get a feel of what education was like in a one-room schoolhouse during the 1800s.

Crawford likes kids and likes teaching, her "lesson plans" peppered with props and joy.

"There's a book every year, and they're all fun -- you have to make them fun," she said, already looking forward to the next one -- "I Love Strawberries."