Tomato Tomato!

So, when you read the title of this post, did you say, in your head, “to-may-to, to-may-to,” or “to-mah-to, to-mah-to,” or “to-may-to, to-mah-to”? Inquiring minds want to know.

I grew a tomato jungle. My tomatoes, plus one sunflower, are all that survived the grasshoppers. The grasshoppers even devoured Daisy’s pasture, leaving skeleton stalks of alfalfa and grass stems, and I had to start feeding her hay by the end of July. Very sad.

But I did manage to save my tomatoes and one sunflower! Honestly, I was tempted to use pesticides, but I didn’t. Instead, I smashed cloves of garlic, steeped the garlic in oil, strained the garlic-infused oil into a pump-action weed sprayer, added a touch of biodegradable dish soap, diluted it with water, and sprayed this concoction onto my plants.

This had to be done often and my place reeked of garlic and it was hard to keep up, which is why I lost all my carrots and onions and melons and raspberries and peppers and corn and herbs and broccoli and flowers and greens.

I did dig up one handful of tiny potatoes in July after the grasshoppers stripped the stalks bare. Whew. This is why organic produce is so much more expensive.

But look at these tomatoes! This basket is huge – it measures 21″ x 16″ x 7″. And this is just four day’s harvest! Tons more on the vine. Hooray! And YUM.

An Anniversary

What are your thoughts on death?

I’d love to know.

Here is a passage from my book:

“We romanticize that wild animals enjoy an idyllic life of freedom, when really, they are fighting to survive, for food and shelter and safety and against the infringements of man. Death serves in nature. The soil is fortified by the bones; animals and birds and bugs live off the carcass. In nature, there is honor in being eaten. To me, the [dead] deer was beautiful in providing its body to the living animals that were trying to survive. And I believe this works on a human level as well, although it is somewhat taboo in our society. I believe we can learn to use death, and let the gifts of the dead help us to become stronger. Our society responds to death by mourning, and usually, mourning is the stopping place. It is not the stopping place. I believe there is nourishment and strength to be found, if only we were not so afraid of it.”

What about you?