That's the Way the World Goes Round

Every season has it's challenges and I do mean that without exception. The longer I do this growing food thing, the more I realize that no longer does the perfect season exist.  I remind myself of an old boyfriend who worked at Stelco in Hamilton in it's heyday, and I quote "it's too hot, it's too cold-when's payday?"

It's true that the conditions are never just right, but unlike the union workers at Stelco, my payday might critically be affected by the weather .  Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry-no payday.

The reality is for me this year anyway that things aren't too bad. Dry I can handle. Wet conditions are another story.

Weird weather to be sure. Never have I worked up the soil and had it come up so dry. Holy mole. I've been one dusty chiquita tilling the soil on my now happily working John Deere tractor. Dust in every crevice, crook and cranny of my body. Some spots in the fields I didn't get to earlier are resisting the tiller. It bounces along the surface barely making a dent in my hard clay.

The rain today will change all that.

That's the way the world goes round (...thanks for the inspiration John Prine.) You do what you can with what you're given. And then things just happen. Who knows why.

I no longer find myself panicking because Mother Nature doesn't do precisely what I would like her to. I know we have not done precisely or even remotely what I suspect she would have liked us to do. So here we are.  Wacky weather, doing the best we can to grow food and eke out a living.

This week was a whirlwind of planting. Loads of basils, far, far too many hot and scorching peppers, sweet peppers, tomatillos, ground cherries, brassicas of every type. Organic Gardening magazine test garden is in-check! Eggplants, cotton (for fun!), some beans, root chicory for a local coffee roaster, chards, Tiffany and Suzanne's fav celery, a major funky multi-coloured sweet corn, some of the hard to find Chersonskaya winter squash. And more to be sure.  Beets, carrots, salad....

This weekend I need to go through my seeds and make sure I don't forget anything I really want to get in this year, like the rice, farro and wax gourds. I know I can't possibly get everything in, but there's always next year, right? That's the way the world goes round..

Next week is the tomato planting blitz. If you bought plants from me, you probably got yours in. It definitely isn't too late. Think you'll be bored next week and want to try your hand at planting? Come on out-it's free!

I still have some nice plants available for your garden too. There are some great tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and basils left. Deals may be had!

Dang that Maris..I think his rows are crooked!