You know how the Chinese have a name for every year. Well I have decided that this year should be called the year of Murphy’s Law. If you are not familiar with Murphy’s Law it says that if anything can go wrong it will go wrong and then at the most inopportune time. That seems to sum up the vegetable season so far. I had a friend at church come up to me today and say, “I have a tomato question for you”? I said “You obviously have not seen my tomato crop this year for if you had you would not be asking me a tomato question”. Instead you would be thinking no use asking him anything about tomatoes because it is obvious he knows nothing about them. Anyway she asked me the question and sure enough I didn’t have an answer for her. Maybe some of you can answer it. She said she picks her tomatoes before they are completely ripe and set them on a table to finish ripening but before they do they are covered with what looks like tiny bruise spots all over them. She said they don’t have the spots when she picks them but in a couple of days they are covered. I am hearing similar horror stories from people all over this year. It seems like everyone has had at least one experience this summer that has made them scratch their head in wonderment.
I knew it was really bad for a while because even the weeds weren’t growing like normal. When the weeds are having a tough time you know it is really bad. Weeds really are amazing. They come up in my little greenhouse during the summer after I stop using it for the summer and grow clear to the ceiling even though I never water them. If I were to plant plants in there and not care for them they would be dead in a week. But not the weeds no sir they continue to thrive. As hot as it has been this summer I know it has had to be 150 degrees in there some days. You just walk in the door and the heat nearly knocks you down and you think nothing could survive in here but those weeds do and pretty well at that.
Also now as I plant things I have to stop and figure if what I am planting will have enough time to mature before the frost gets it. Not so the weed however! A former boss of mine used to say that a cocklebur could tell when it was about ready to frost because no matter how big it was it would start to but burs on before the frost. Cockleburs that come up in the spring grow all summer and get chest high before they put burs on. In late fall I have seen them suckers not even an inch tall with two little bitsy burs on and it doesn’t take them long to do it either.
These genetic engineers are working on the wrong aspect. They just need to modify our plants to grow like weeds and that would solve all our problems. The plants would choke out all the weeds. The bugs would never bother them. However this year I have seen the bugs actually working on the weeds more than the crop they are in so I know we are really having a wacky year. And our plants would grow no matter if it was too hot, too dry, too wet, and too cold. They would germinate no matter what. In short all our problems would be solved. RIGHT. This last paragraph is all satire I hope you know! When they start messing with weeds I think we are really doomed!
Your friend in farming bring you food with integrity.
