Source: USDA.
One of the big downsides of farmer’s markets, for me, is that they eliminated my main reason for gardening. Back in the day, the only way you could get your hands on a decent-tasting full-sized tomato was to grow it. But once I realized I could just walk down to the center of Vienna of a Saturday morning and buy one … well, that kind of took away a lot of the incentive.
To illustrate what I mean by back in the day, all the tomato cages I own, I bought at Hechinger’s.
But, of late, I haven’t even bothered to plant (e.g.) peas, which, basically, anybody can grow. You stick them in the ground. Then wait.
And, to be clear, I am not a good gardener. I’ve always been a “no till” gardener. I tried to tell myself that it was more environmentally responsible. But the fact is, it just takes lots less work.
Anyhow, this is by way of saying, I think I’ll put in a garden this year. Couldn’t hurt, might help. Gets me out of the house. And, basically, one of the things we can be thankful for is that we live in a town with lots of green space. No reason that can’t grow me some tomatoes.
Near as I can tell, from what I read, the upshot on the food supply chain is that you aren’t going to starve, but you may not be able to find everything that you are used to finding. But that’s OK.
As a kid, one of the thrills of mid-summer was that you could get watermelons in the grocery store. Because they grew in Florida, and, well, that’s when they got ripe. Couldn’t get them any other time. Even now, I goggle at the presence of blackberries in the supermarket. When I was a kid, the only way to get them was to go out and pick them. When they were ripe enough to pick.*
* Blackberries are red when they’re green.
I kind of get the impression we’re going back to times like that. You’re not going to starve. But for a while at least, you’re not going to have everything, all the time. It’s life out of the fast lane, so to speak.
So, what the heck. Can’t hurt, might help. I’m going to put in a serious garden this year. There’s nothing like a fresh tomato, even if you have to fight the squirrels, deer, slugs, and assorted other pests for it. Might even have enough to put away for the winter.*
* You eat what you can, and what you can’t, you can.
So, for my part, I think I’m looking at … ah, the better part of my life savings going off to money heaven in the near future. But, you know, shit happens. Shit makes a fine fertilizer. And fertilizer grows food. So it’s a circle-of-life thing. Kind of. You have to roll with it, not because you want to, but because you’ve got no choice. As with my recently-blogged stock investment, I might as well try to put a smile on my face if I can.
Intellectually, I know I’m not going to starve from this crisis. But it’s hard to see a downside of planting a garden. It’s food therapy.
