or other field peas, potatoes (red or sweet), and potato pumpkins. Fruits included apples, cherries, peaches, watermelons, and muskmelons. Chickens and eggs were also produced. At some plantations, some slaves were healthier than the white family living in the great house because they ate more fresh produce. The slaves benefited in other ways from the food they produced. They grew some crops out of season, and could sell them to the master and his family. They sold their produce and poultry to other plantations or in local markets if they could get to a town. The plantation mistress bought produce from the slaves. Records kept by Martha Jefferson's granddaughter, Anne Carey Randolph, show that she purchased goods from over forty slaves. Jefferson's slaves benefited from the slave-master bargaining over produce. Though Monticello had a garden, it was not always a reliable food source because Jefferson liked to use his garden to experiment with different plants. The produce cultivated by the slaves was needed for meals in the house as well. The slaves received money and business experience as a result of their gardening and poultry production. They used the money or credit to buy goods such as toys, ribbons, and kitchen utensils. Slaves developed bargaining skills by bartering with the mistress of the house or Jefferson's overseer when selling their crops. Labor Slaves worked in their own gardens at night or on Sundays. Although the strength of adult males was needed for groundbreaking and heavy work, most of the gardening was done by older slaves. Older slaves were assigned less plantation work, and they needed the produce from the gardens because their rations were only half that of regular adults. Though slaves shared some of the food they grew with each other, unhealthy slaves and children, who needed the nutrition most, were too weak or tired to work the garden enough to produce enough food to eat or sell. Plantation owners' viewpoints Planters and overseers each felt differently about slave gardens. Supporters believed that the gardens tied the slaves to the land, whereas others thought that the gardens gave the slaves too much independence and made them more likely to run away. Selling their own produce gave slaves a feeling of economic freedom, against many slave masters' wishes. Jefferson's records show that though his slaves' gardens were an important part of Monticello, at times he faced problems with slaves stealing