I want a man with a slow...salad

Today's post will be a short one. I hadn't planned to post today at all, but after reading today's edition of Grist, I just had to.
There is an excellent article in Grist today named Slow Food Fight about the elitism which has overtaken the sustainable food movement as I mentioned previously. The article discusses a confrontation between farmers and the founder of the Slow Food trend, Carlo Petrini. I would encourage everyone who is concerned about the direction and philosophy of sustainable food to read it.
I also want to take a few lines to plug one of my new pet causes, Cows Unite. The site is dedicated to the goal of organic, humane milk production. You can read a very entertaining history of the movement here, or download the bovine bill of rights here. Please check it out and sign up as part of the network (for you non-joiners, at least check it out).
Lastly, a report on the tomatoes. I sprayed organic fungicide/insecticide/miticide on them (mostly neem oil and some inert ingredients) and it really seems to be helping. The leaves are uncurling and there are no new brown spots.
That's all for now. I've got to run, or maybe mosey would be more appropriate given the title of the post.

Squash Blossom Rag

The garden is doing quite well. As you can see from the picture, the squash are in bloom. One of the tomato plants also has blooms. The other is not doing so well. The leaves have begun curling up and turning a kind of brownish color. I sprayed some organic fungicide/insecticide/miticide on it to see if that will help. I don't see any bugs and it doesn't look like anything is eating the leaves, but I'm not sure where else to start. I think maybe a cat is spraying it, or the dog is peeing on it for some reason. All of the other plants are coming along, but very slowly. I have sprouted some more datil pepper plants in the hope that if I cover them with floating row covers when I put them in the ground, they will not get eaten this time. I am continuing to use the Terracycle garden food, but I can't see that it is having any effect at all on the plants. Melissa says her garden is coming along well also. We got about 5 inches of rain between Friday and Today here in Jacksonville thanks to tropical storm Barry. If we could just get another 5 or 6 tropical storms here with a lot of rain and a little wind, that would really help North Florida's drought conditions and my garden.
Melissa and I are finally going to make it to the Alachua County Farmer's Market this weekend. I'm pretty excited. It's a grower's market, which means that only the people who grow the food are allowed to sell it. Obviously this is much different from the Jacksonville Farmer's Market(a huge disappointment!) where anyone who has a crate of produce can sell.
Lastly, I would like to return to a topic that I mentioned in my last post. Since then I have seen a few more articles about how terrible it is that organic food is being produced by large "factory" farms. I find these articles to be very disturbing and elitist, and smacking of neo-ludditism. Everywhere you see information that says that organic food is more nutritious than non-organic food, and it is certainly better for the environment. Every "environmental" writer should agree that it would be great if organic food were to be available to everyone, but when the distribution system to make that possible begins to appear, it is immediately demonized. So what is really meant by these articles is that everyone should have organic food, but it should only be produced on farms that make everyone feel warm and fuzzy and don't use any technology that would allow for economies of scale. So, since organic production will be limited, organic foods will continue to be out of reach of many people. Certainly, so-called "factory farms" have earned a well-deserved poor reputation. But, if a farm is following organic and humane standards, I think bigger is definitely better.
Anyway, that's it for today. Tune in for more exciting vegetable talk next time!

Green Grow the Radishes

In the last two posts, I've successfully skirted the issue of whether it's better to eat locally or organically. Today, I'm going to try to commit to a position. Apparently, I am not the only person who wrestles with the dilemma of local eating vs. organic eating. Time magazine has an excellent article on the subject named "Eating Better Than Organic". Grist has also adapted an essay from Samuel Fromartz' book, Organic, Inc. I think the most balanced article I have found to date came from National Geographic.
There are many reasons to eat local food. First, there is the romanticism involved in buying from a local farmer's market or local farm, and feeling a pseudo-connection to the land from which the produce or meat or dairy product came. Buying local supports local farmers and boosts the local economy. Local food is likely to be fresher than food transported across the country. Since the food you are buying does not have to be transported very far, the environment benefits because less fuel is used resulting in lower CO2 and other pollutant emissions and less fuel is used thus conserving petroleum. As an aside, I should also point out that just because a farm is not certified as organic by the USDA, this does not mean they do not use organic farming practices. For some small farms, the cost and effort involved may be prohibitive. If you are considering buying local and are looking for organic products, please check with the farmer if you have questions.
Eating organic also has a number of benefits. There is the satisfaction of knowing that what you are eating was not sprayed with poisonous pesticides nor was it genetically modified. If it is meat or dairy or eggs, the animals producing the food were most likely treated humanely (look for the animal care certified label). There is the fact that your food has not been injected with harmful hormones or antibiotics and that poisons have not been sprayed on the food you are about to eat. Organic food has also not been genetically modified. These thing are not only good for you, but good for the environment. Overuse of antibiotics causes antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. The addition of hormones (particularly rBGH) to livestock has been shown to cause
a number of health issues. Pesticide used on crops can pollute groundwater and have a disruptive effect on numerous amphibian and aquatic species. Studies have also shown that organic produce has higher nutritional content than non-organic produce. Much is made over the expansion of organic farms into large organic conglomerates. Many people have criticized Wal-Mart for their plans to introduce more organic products into their stores. To me, this is rather nonsensical. While I hate Wal-Mart as much as the next person, I think it would be fantastic if everyone could buy organic products at prices that everyone could afford. Large organic farms are simply a way to meet the increasing demand for organic food, not some vast conspiracy to put all small organic farmers out of business.
So, my opinion is, eat as organically and as locally as possible. If you can buy organic produce locally, please do so. I would even encourage you to go a little out of your way to look for local organic goods. Take a nice little day trip to a local farm and check out their products. You can also find a list of local farmers markets here. If you cannot purchase organic products from local farmers, you may be able to purchase organic food from a local grocery or discount store.
The important thing is that we begin to get a grasp on where our food comes from and how it is produced and use our food dollars to demand more of what we value, whether it be locally grown produce instead of produce that can be grown locally but is shipped from another country that can grow it cheaper or organic products that are not poisoning us, our children, and the world around us, or, in the best of both worlds, locally produced organic products.

...and I would walk 100 more

After reading over my last post, it may seem as though I'm slamming authors who take on the existing "food establishment", and that certainly is not the case. I think it would be wonderful if we could all buy our meat and vegetables from Mr. Green Jeans, our local farmer who farms organically and raises enough food to feed the entire community. There I go again, sounding all acrimonius. I encourage everyone to eat local, organic food as much as possible, I simply think there are certain assumptions made by environmental authors that are just not true. In fact, I noticed one of these assumptions in my last post - the assumption that are large farms are evil.
Because of economies of scale it may actually be cheaper for large farms to go organic than for smaller farms. Larger farms can also more readily implement technology such as hydroponics to make farming organically more efficient. Smaller farms may find the investment in such technologies cost-prohibitive. If large farms are managed using sustainable agricultural practices, they are every bit as beneficial as smaller farms. I should also point out that the terms "small" and "large" are undefined and so are rather vague and relative terms.
As further evidence that these assumptions are just not true, we can look at a local farmer's market, the local, organic food activists mecca. I live in Jacksonville, Florida so Melissa and I decided to make a visit to the local farmer's market which is in fact the oldest continuously operating farmer's market in the state. We were excited to be starting on the 100 Mile Diet and were certain that we would find all sorts of wonderful local, organic delicacies. To our dismay, we were completely wrong.
One of the first things we saw when we arrived were some very interesting beans, rather like fava beans, but speckled bright red and white. We asked the proprietor of the stall what kind of beans these were and they didn't know. This was not a fortuitous sign at all. However, it was a harbinger of what was to come. As we proceeded, we saw many varieties of produce, which from the cartons they were in appeared to be within a 100 mile range, however, when I asked if the produce was organic, I was met with numerous blank stares. It appeared that very few of the people selling produce at the local farmer's market were local, farmers, or even spoke much English. This is not a jibe, just a statement of fact. As we trudged valiantly onward in our quest for local, organic food I noticed many stalls with boxes of Dole bananas and other produce that was not in season yet in Florida. Granted, I am not a farmer but I'm pretty sure that the climate of North Florida, or even most of Florida, is not conducive to growing a large amount of bananas or coconuts. Needless to say, our farmer's market trip was more of a misadventure than not. There is another farmer's market in Alachua, about 90 minutes away that I would like to check out. I've been told that it is actually manned (peopled?) by local farmers, so I am cautiously optimistic about it.
This brings up the question again, if you have to make a choice between local and organic, which is better?

I would walk 100 miles (or would I)

WoW! I didn't realize it had been two weeks since my last post until I sat down to write today's. Sorry about the time lag, but things have been a little crazy lately around the ol' homestead. On the gardening front, everything is growing well in my garden, Melissa's I'm not so sure about. The plants looked a little sad the last time I checked on them. We may end up with a smaller garden than what we had anticipated. I finally planted the datils (they are very slow to sprout), and something dug them up. I have sprouted more, so I'm just waiting to see if they survive. The buttercup squash, watermelon, and tomatoes are all doing very well.
I'm not too sure about the worm poop fertilizer from terracycle, however. It certainly hasn't hurt the crops, but I haven't seen any extraordinary growth, either, so I'm not sure how effective it is as a fertilizer. I would be curious to know if anyone else has had success with it.
I know last time I promised a review of Plenty, the book by the originators of the 100 Mile Diet, and I will get to it shortly. Coincidentally, this past Sunday, NPR had an interview with Alisa Smith and J.B. McKinnon, authors of the book. You can access the transcript of the interview or listen to it here. I finished the book shortly after my last posting (I just couldn't put it down), and Melissa and I got all jazzed up about trying out the 100 Mile Diet. The book is an excellent read and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the local food "movement". The concepts presented in the book are very poignant and need to be heard. The basic concept to take away from the book is that we as a society have lost touch with where our food comes from and the efforts that go into producing the food we eat.
I do have to say that I take issue with some assumptions that are made in the book and on the 100 Mile Diet website. I especially take issue with the tag line on the website and in advertisements for the book that "Local is the new organic." This essentially reduces the idea of eating, growing, and producing food organically to the status of a fad that has passed. It also implies that food that is local cannot also be organic and vice versa. This, in fact, is my main issue with the book. There seem to be implicit assumptions, not just in this book but in other environmental literature such as Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, that 1) all local farms are organic farms and 2) all local farms are small farms.
Neither of these assumptions are true. If all local farms were organic farms, the price of organic food would be considerably less because of the large supply that would be available. Since organic farming is more expensive than conventional farming due to the fact that it is more labor-intensive than conventional farming, it may often not be cost effective for small, local farmers to grow organically.
Secondly, all local farms can't be small farms. Someone has to live near large, non-organic farms. The local farms to these people would be large monoculture farms. This may seems rather nit-picky, but it is an important distinction. If your local farm only produces non-organic genetically modified crops, is it really worthwhile to try to eat locally?
Which brings up the question, is it better to eat locally or organically? Unfortunately, it is dinner time (organic, but not local - yet) so that will have to wait until another post (I've got to give you some reason to come back!). If anyone has any thoughts on this, I would love to hear from them.

Gardening at night

Well, my little gardeners and gardenettes, it was a busy weekend at the old homestead. We finished filling Melissa's raised bed. Did I mention that it takes copious amounts of dirt to build a garden? That sounds like it could be a catchy book title - It Takes a @$#!load of Dirt to Build a Garden. Melissa planted the plants that had sprouted and begin sprouting the other seeds (go go little plastic greenhouse!), so we are both looking forward to a bountiful harvest from our two gardens. The plants in my garden are doing quite well. I haven't planted the datils yet as they are rather slow in growing in the peat pots. I did find a new liquid organic fertilizer that I have tried on my garden. Terracycle is the maker. The containers are recycled soda bottles and the fertilizer is made primarily of worm castings. The company also has a recycling program for their bottles where they make a charitable donation for each bottle returned to them. Sounds like a great company, I'll keep you updated on how their product works.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I ordered Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon, the originators of the 100 Mile Diet. I received my book and so far it's really rather interesting. The book details, very amusingly, the attempt (a successful one as of page 107, anyway) to eat only food that originated within 100 miles of where the authors live in British Columbia. As you can imagine, the authors face a number of challenges in obtaining palatable food. The basic idea behind the 100 mile diet is to eat food that originated within 100 miles of where you live. The 100 Mile Diet website has several tips to help you get started. Click on the link on the sidebar for more information. I think the concept is a fantastic one, however I can see it being rather challenging depending on where one lives. Hopefully, by my next post, I will have finished the book, and will have the definitive review for you.

So, stay tuned for "I would walk 100 miles, or would I?"

Sowing The Seeds of Love

Last post I promised more info on companion planting. Here we go -
The basic idea behind companion planting is that certain plants have a somewhat symbiotic relationship with other plants. Planted together the plants may increase yields, provide pest control, or condition the soil. However, there are also certain plants that should never be planted together, such as tomatoes and potatoes, because they either have a deleterious effect on the soil or on one another. Basically, planning a garden using companion planting is like playing Sudoku with plants.

Although companion planting techniques originally arose through observation and horticultural science, but over time some more metaphysical techniques were used to determine what plants ere good companions. There are numerous websites that have extensive lists of what to plant with what and what plants to avoid planting together. As I'm sure you have experienced when searching the web, many of the sites offering authoritative advice do not agree with one another. One of the better sites I found was the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service ( with a name like that it has to be good!). Other sites basically just have lists of plants, but this one goes into a little more detail about the science (or pseudo-science, in some cases) behind companion planting. Although companion planting techniques originally arose through observation and horticultural science, but over time some more metaphysical techniques were used to determine what plants are good companions.

For example, in my garden I have planted, along with the main vegetable crops, marigolds, bee balm, and oregano. Marigolds have been shown to repel pests that feed on tomatoes and squash. Instead of using insecticides (organic or not) on the plants, I am relying on the marigolds to keep the tomato and squash bugs at bay. Oregano provides general pest protection. Bee Balm, in addition to being very pretty when in bloom, attracts bees to pollinate the vegetable and fruit flowers, enhances the flavor and growth of tomatoes and is thought to discourage subterranean pests. Not only is my garden beautiful and edible, it's also self-pest controlling.

Next time - more info on the 100 Mile Diet, I promise. I just ordered the book by the originators of the 100 Mile Diet, Alisa Smith and JB McKinnon, and can't wait to start reading it. In the meantime check out the link under roadside attractions.

The Plot Thickens

Well, I finally took the plunge and planted the peat pots from the greenhouse. So far everything is looking good with the exception of the chard. The stems were still very fragile and something (dog, cat, bird) broke them all in two. As of today, though I am happy to report that they are re-sprouting. Hopefully they will grow this time.

The datil pepper seeds finally sprouted and are incubating in the mini-greenhouse. I was a little concerned about them since everything else had sprouted.

My fiance, Melissa and I have decided to have separate gardens. Mine is a plot in my backyard and hers will be(eventually, hopefully) a raised bed. It takes an enormous amount of dirt to make a raised bed! An enormous amount! We started working on the bed last weekend and did not finish because we went to the 1st Annual Jacksonville Irish Festival (Flogging Molly ROCKS!). I am hoping to finish the bed this coming weekend and actually sow some seeds. My garden has as its main crops chard, buttercup squash, tomatoes, watermelon, and soon will have datil peppers. In the spirit of the companion planting concept, I have also planted oregano, marigolds, and bee balm. The parts of the garden in the photo where it looks like bricks are areas that I am marking so I don't step on the chard or areas that are waiting to be planted with datils.

You'll notice a new image on the sidebar about the 100 Mile Diet. Don't click on it, it's just an image. For more info on the 100 Mile Diet click here:http://100milediet.org/category/about/
This is a fascinating website about eating locally that I would encourage everyone to check out.

More about companion planting and the 100 mile diet (two subjects that are totally unrelated except in the fact that they are of interest to me). next time. For now, it's been a long hard day in the cyber-trenches and I hear dinner calling so I am calling it a night.

It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown

Yes, it's the day celebrated in the one of the best and certainly the most elusive of the Charlie Brown/Peanuts specials. For anyone looking for this lost gem, it's only available on the "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown" DVD. Good Grief!

Arbor Day was originated in Nebraska on April 10, 1872 by Julius Sterling Morton, the man who was later to become Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. He felt that Nebraska's landscape and economy could benefit from the planting of trees. His idea was incredibly successful and eventually other states adopted their own Arbor Days with the dates depending upon the local climate. In 1970, Richard Nixon proclaimed the last Friday in April to be the national Arbor Day.

Other countries also celebrate Arbor Day or a variation thereof. Israel celebrates the New Year's Day of Trees, Yugoslavia celebrates Reforestation Week, Iceland has Students' Afforestation Day, and Japan has Greening Week.

Stop reading now and go plant a tree (or a shrubbery, or a vine, or anything)!

Digging in the dirt (sort of)

I planted most of the seeds in my little plastic greenhouse this past weekend. You can see for yourself the results. The photo shows the chard, cucumber, buttercup squash, and watermelon sprouts. It's a little out of focus, but I'm still practicing with my new digital camera. I was prepared to write about how uninspiring planting my seeds in the little plastic tray was, but after seeing the amazing growth over the last 4 days, I am a little conflicted.
I'm sure this isn't quite the transcendent experience that Thoreau and Emerson had in mind when they wrote such bon mots as, "When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do what I should have done with my own hands."(Emerson) and "As I drew a still fresher sooil about the rows with my hoe, I disturbed the ashes of unchronicled nations who in primeval years lived under these heavens, and their small implements of war and hunting were brought to the light this modern day."(Thoreau) Planting seeds in little peat pellets seemed a little lacking. There was no smell of damp earth, no feeling the coarse molecules of earth flowing through my fingers, no sense of connection with the Earth from which we all were born and are destined to return. Just poking seeds into little balls of peat.
On the other hand, the results were indeed amazing. After only 4 days, nearly all of my seeds had sprouted and grown to between 3 and 4 inches tall. And anyway, I would get to play in the dirt once they were ready to plant. The verdict - little plastic greenhouses rock!
I also built a compost bin this weekend. My research indicated that although a compost pile was cheap and easy(and I already had one in fact), a compost bin created usable compost much more quickly. All of the bins I found on-line were relatively expensive (some over $100). Since they all looked rather like plastic trash cans with lots of little holes in them, I figured I could drill my own holes(free) in a trash can($14.99 fro a 45 gallon can from my local big box retailer) and save a ton. So far, so good.

Since the seeds will almost certainly be ready to plant this weekend, the decision of what kind of garden (plot or raised bed) has suddenly become very important. Stay Tuned!

Seeds of Change

More seeds to add to my gardening repertoire - Brandywine Tomato, Big Max Pumpkin, Early Prolific Straightneck Squash, Buttercup squash, and Pinkeye Purple Hull cowpeas. Since I have several varieties of heirloom seeds, I thought it might be interesting to learn the history of them. I'm sure you are probably thinking the same thing. If you are, you're as wrong as I was. Unfortunately, I was only able to find some rather sketchy information on three of the varieties of seeds other than the Datil pepper. If you read my previous post and clicked on the Pure Florida link, you already know quite a bit about the Datil. If you didn't read my previous post, what's wrong with you?! Go back and read it now, we'll wait on you.
.............................................................Now that we're all caught up, back to the main thread. I was able to find a little history on the Buttercup squash, Moon & Stars watermelon and the Brandywine tomato. However, what I found was not the thrilling saga of yesteryear full of intrigue, romance, and betrayal that I imagined it would be, but mostly rather humdrum. But, since I went to all the work to do the research, here it is anyway:

Buttercup Squash - Several years ago a North Dakota horticulturist bred a small variety of turban squash as a substitute for the sweet potato, which does not thrive on the northern Great Plains. This little Buttercup squash has flesh surprisingly similar to sweet potato in taste and quality. (Wikipedia)

Moon & Stars watermelon - Called 'Sun, Moon and Stars' when it was introduced in 1926 by Peter Henderson and Company, the melon had disappeared from the commercial market for decades and was thought extinct when, in 1981, as Goldman notes, Kent Whealy, cofounder of Seed Savers Exchange, was contacted by Merle Van Doren of Macon, Mo., who was growing the melon and gave Whealy some of the seeds from the melons he grew. The Southern Exposure Seed Exchange reintroduced the oblong 'Amish Moon & Stars' and a yellow-fleshed, not-so-sweet variety in 1987. (Seed Savers Exchange)

Brandywine tomato - This is fairly certain, Brandywine is a tomato that found its way into the Seed Savers Exchange collection in 1982. It got there via an elderly (now deceased) Ohio gardener named Ben Quisenberry, who received the variety from a woman named Dorris Sudduth Hill. She stated that they had been in her family for over 80 years. The key question is whether Brandywine was a family heirloom that arose from a commercial variety via selection, or was brought from overseas. Burpee reports carrying it in their catalogue as early as 1886. It is reputed to have been developed by the Amish, though there is no evidence of this and may simply be a result of 19th Century marketing. (Wikipedia and Seed Savers Exchange)

Now that I have way too many seeds, I think I'll start my seeds in the little plastic greenhouse tomorrow.

I got seeds, they're multiplyin...

It turns out that not only is organic gardening good for you, it's good for the whole planet. While surfing at work today, I found an interesting article about the environmental impact of organic gardening (http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070408/SPNEWS0505/104080099). Not only are non-organic fertilizers bad because of the chemicals in them that seep into the groundwater and cause algae blooms and other sorts of ugly problems, the production of inorganic fertilizers is fairly energy intensive. According to Mr. Homeyer's article, each 50 pound bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer produced uses about 1.5 gallons of gas. That doesn't sound like a lot, but a considerable amount of petroleum is being used to make the fertilizer for several million gardeners across the country (and around the world too, I guess). So, make your own compost (see here for tips http://www.compostguide.com/), buy cow poop, and stick it to THE MAN!

Enough ranting for now. I took the plunge and bought seeds for the garden and a little plastic greenhouse today. We will be growing Datil peppers, Moon & Star Watermelons, Ruby swiss chard, Sumter cucmbers, and some kidney beans my fiance's son sprouted at school. I'm especially excited about the Datil peppers. I love hot peppers and the Datil is a unique variety. The seeds generally aren't available commercially and are very closely guarded by the Datil growers in St. Augustine. For some more background on the Datil, check out the Pure Florida blog ( http://pureflorida.blogspot.com/2005/08/datil-peppers.html).

I bought organic, heirloom seeds for my organic garden because that just sounded right. After further contemplation, I starting wondering, what makes seeds organic? After all, organic produce is raised without pesticides and chemical fertilizers, but seeds? Seeds are what are left over after you eat the produce. That's what I thought, but apparently, seeds are a huge industry by themselves.

It turns out that organic seeds are not genetically modified or chemically treated like regular seeds(!!). Often genetically engineered seed is not adequately tested before being released. Genetically modified seeds also decrease ecological diversity. Organic seeds are also bred to be more adaptable to their environment. Heirloom seeds are seed varieties have been passed along for sometimes hundreds of years. By using heirloom seeds, I'm preserving a part of the past, and maybe eating the same type of tomato or cucumber that my great, great grandparents ate. Heirloom seeds preserve genetic and cultural diversity as well. Seed Savers Exchange has been a pioneer in the heirloom seed movement, and you can find out more about them and their mission at http://www.seedsavers.org/Aboutus.asp .

The next challenge is to decide what type of garden to plant, container, raised bed, or a plot.

It was a dark and stormy night...

Actually more like a windy afternoon. I decided yesterday to do two things - start a blog and plant a garden. So, here I am starting the blog, anyway. I will be planting the garden this weekend. I really like the idea of an organic garden- it's sustainable, renewable, functional, and healthy. It also builds community. Oftentimes, we barely know our next door neighbors, let alone the people three or four houses down the street. Gardening is a great way to meet those people - you've got to have someone to give all of your leftover vegetables to! My fiance and I are discussing what to plant in our garden, so I am open to suggestions. We're looking for vegetables that are easy to grow in North Florida and are tasty (that's a matter of opinion, but to me that means no zucchini, broccoli, or yellow squash). I haven't had much luck growing anything but tomatoes, so any suggestions or tidbits of advice are welcome.

Stay tuned to find out what we end up planting!

Here a a few interesting links that I found for anyone interested in organic gardening:

http://www.kitchengardeners.org/

http://www.organicgardening.com/

http://perrone.blogs.com/horticultural/
This is a great blog by Jane Perrone, a British author and organic gardener


I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse