Monday, August 17, 2009

You say tomato, I say zut alors


I am sorry but the farm is driving me crazy. You remember my farm. It is one of those Community Assisted Agriculture situations. You pay money in advance and then you get a bag of vegetables every week.

Saturday the farm's newsletter said, "It is a miracle anything is growing in the ground."

And they announced that their tomatoes had flopped and the season would be severely curtailed.

OK, I thought, this has been a rough and rainy summer so far. That has been fine with me because, no hard feelings about sitting in the house for hours on end writing about Leonard Pennario. Plus fewer parties next door. These people had a party on Saturday and you could not even think. Howard said it was as if we were getting a new roof put on the house. Ha, ha! It was true!

Well, the rainy summer may have been good for me but it was bad for the tomatoes.
Tomatoes need sun. I understand that, blah blah blah.

However.

Lastnight I go over to my friend Gary's house. And Gary gives me a gigantic bag of tomatoes.

He said, "I got so many I just got tired of picking them so I did not even pick all of them."

These are beautiful golden tomatoes and beautiful crimson cherry tomatoes.

I ask you.

What is with this farm? I know when you do the Community Assisted Agriculture thing -- that is not the right term but I cannot think of the right term -- you share the losses as well as the triumphs. They love to lecture you about that. But does the emphasis has to be so much on the losses?

I think they should take a few lessons from Gary.

Whatever he is doing, he is doing right!

4 comments:

Amy said...

Late Blight has been getting many of the tomato crops this year... it's been a very bad season for farms and home gardeners alike. I guess some people have lucked out but others have had to literally yank their plants from the ground and bag 'em to prevent the spread of this awful disease. It's the same one that created the Irish potato famine.

Larry said...

Tomatoes need music to grow well.

Ward said...

I'm sure Howard would agree with me that farm co-ops are a micro-economic illustration of the differences between socialism and capitalism. The one which ends up producing more is likely not the one whose producers are paid a stipulated amount in advance, regardless of their output.

Mary Kunz Goldman said...

Ward, you are so wise! I never saw it like that but you are right! I think next year it will be the Clinton Bailey market for me.