Sometimes I look at Handy Hubby and whine, “Please, make it stop!”
Then I think of the shrimp scene in the film Forest Gump—you got your boiled shrimp, your fried shrimp, your grilled shrimp, shrimp creole, your gumbo . . . .
Only with me it’s tomatoes.
In my defense I planted so many tomatoes because last year was not good for tomatoes, so we didn’t can up nearly as much as we wanted and were way short on salsa. The crop burned up so fast, it was pathetic, even though I planted just as many, we got far less.
So this year I was really determined. Decidedly, way too determined.
And, while we do (still!) have a bumper crop, it’s not exactly ideal, because once again, it’s so hot so fast that they are burning and exploding on the vine if I try to let them ripen properly. So, I have to bring them in to ripen, which means I’m really, really sick of looking at them everywhere.
But they are good, so, so good! My very favorite way to enjoy them is so simple—sliced and liberally doused with salt and pepper and served with— Everything!
We can chow through a good many this way, and it lasts for just a month or two, which makes our enjoyment all the sweeter.
Then you got your salsas, your chutneys, your marinaras, your tomato soup, your creamed tomato soup, your plain canned, your Rotella style, spicy juice for cocktails, ketchup, barbecue sauce . . .. 😆. Did I miss anything?
And the cucumbers. Oh please, don’t get me started on the cucumbers! How I long for them all winter, and within two months can hardly stand to harvest them any longer.
I purposely planted fewer this spring, planning to stagger them more, for a longer season. In fact, there should not be so many cucumbers at all based on my inputs, and the sad fact that there are NO bees on them. By that I mean our own honey bees are not visiting our garden, though there are two colonies within 75 feet of it.
Speaking of bees, half of my colonies, that’s 3 out of 6, have perished this summer. I’m not surprised when I lose a colony over the winter or early spring, but 3 that were going strong into the summer, this is unheard for me, and super depressing.
I also notice far fewer native bees, and the ones I am seeing are much smaller. The wasps seem to be doing very well, so maybe that’s who is keeping us in bushels of cucumbers at the moment?
And of course we’re offering the surplus to anyone! We give it to neighbors, bring it to gatherings, get the word around that it is available, for free. What we can’t eat or give away goes to the goats and pigs and they need to eat too!
So, when I get the occasional comment that we should sell it at the farmer’s market or somewhere equivalent, I understand the well-meaning at heart. But, what I’m actually self-censoring myself from saying does stray a bit from the habitual and expected smile and nod.
Because what I sometimes hear, though I’m sure was not at all the intentioned meaning is:
It’s really not enough that you work your fucking ass off to produce all this fine produce, you should now go out and spend money on gas hauling it to town and suffer through the rules and regulations and pay for a booth and market it to a public who mostly doesn’t give a shit what they eat, and let’s face it, mostly just wants it cheap and convenient. So, don’t just plant it, nurture it, harvest it, sort it, wash it, package it, but now haul it to a market 20+miles away and stand there in the blazing heat all day so you can clear about $30.30 a truckload.
Sounds so awesome! Sign us up! 😳
On a brighter note, here’s something you’ll really like, because the world really does need one more cute kitten video!
Oh and Happy Independence Day y’all, thanks for stopping by!
I hear ya on the farmers market. Last year was a bit of a downer learning how the average ‘consumer’ thinks, and these are the people who are AT the farmers markets, supposedly to eat healthier. Yeah Right! Have another hot dog on your way out why don’t ya?! At least it was an organic grass feed beef hot dog for $11.95! There were a few highlights but the deck is stacked against small producers. I;’ve had better trade relationships with neighbors than the general public.
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love your updates on your farm. I can relate to the bee’s. down to 1 hive and it is one i caught. all my bee’s died or absconded. took everything but the honeycomb! the hives that died I at least got both honey and comb. sudden deaths. no explanations. I blame it on the flying fumigators.
every rain kills more trees. a single branch here….a half of a bush there…honey suckles wiped out. We desperately need rain. the weather maker won’t let us have anything but heat and wind. my fields are crispy. rain doesn’t just kill a few leaves. it wiped out the whole branch…blackened like a chemical contact killer only it is a branch at the top of the tree or one on the side. a single branch but every single rain , what little we get…less then 1/10 th usually kills.
we put up a high tunnel greenhouse a few years ago and it has saved our garden. nothing can be grown outside. only garden we can have is what doesn’t get hit with the chemical rains. we have lots of tomatoes now too. and more to come…40 percent shade cloth as well as plastic cover that keeps out the rain. it does the trick. as for excess tomatoes…that isn’t possible!! we make sauce and can gallons of it. can’t make enough to last every year. chickens love tomatoes…so do the goats so no waste.
hummingbirds are few and far between. lots of ticks, flies, biting flies. but very few fireflies and tree frogs are gone. all frogs are gone for the most part. used to have them leaping out of the yard. and all around my fruit orchard. can’t find one now. miss them. miss the birds too…so few birds. it is quiet all day and all night…the sound of nothing!
love your farm updates….
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Thanks H, appreciate your updates as well. But, what a shame! We’ve had no rain for over a month. Chemical rain or no rain, what a choice.
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Those tomatoes… so so many. May I just say I wish we were neighbors, I would absolutely take free produce off your hands without complaint. People always tell my mom she should sell her eggs for more (she basically just sells them to friends and only charges a couple dollars a dozen to help with food costs) she tells them she keeps chickens for her grandkids to play with and to have eggs for her family. If they would take them for free she would give them away. I take them for free all the time.
I wonder what’s happening to the bees… that’s so strange. I wonder if the weather has anything to do with it?
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If I thought mine was a completely isolated case it would not be so concerning for me—I’d just chalk it up to some random failure on my part and hope for better next year. But I do see a lot of beekeepers noticing, and not just the commercial-level typical Colony Collapse complaints. Some are saying it’s the aluminum pollution: https://www.dw.com/en/study-aluminium-contamination-may-be-behind-bee-dementia-and-decline/a-18500609
Others say it’s the foreign frequencies used in the wireless and in weather modification that disrupts their navigation abilities. And of course others say it’s the neonicotinoids in the pesticides.
And still others are not having or not noticing any issues at all—I notice this especially with non-commercial beekeepers living in or near the cities—there seems to be lots of swarms for them to catch and lots of ‘bee rescues’. But maybe that’s not necessarily a good sign either.
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I watch an apiarist on YouTube who is always saving bees from residential areas. Her channel finds loads and loads of bees so I never would have imagined it to be a problem. We also have tons of honeybees in our yard (but no actual hive or colony that I can access) and I haven’t seen a decline, but also I’m not a bee keeper. I do think all the 5Gradiation and geoengineering is affecting the wildlife. I haven’t seen as many hummingbirds locally this year as I usually do.
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Same here with the hummingbirds this year, but I hadn’t looked to see if this was more widespread. Are you hearing others remark about it?
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No, my mom seems to have a lot at her house (2hr away) but I’ve seen very few and we usually have quite a lot in our neighborhood because loads of my neighbors feed them and plant hummingbird specific plants. I will ask my friend who’s family owns the local birding store. 🤔🤔
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Thanks, would like to hear.
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Problem being that tomatoes have a short shelf life. Hard to get rid of that many fast enough to keep them from going belly up.
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I love vine ripened tomatoes. I wouldn’t haul produce to a farmers market either. It wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
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