Garden-fresh Veggies are Worth the Pain

                               UH, OH, Late Again
My, how the time flies!  I should add "when you're having fun."  But that would not be entirely true, though, to be perfectly honest, it would not be entirely false either.  I love gardening, and I am thrilled that my daughter now owns a place where I can indulge that passion.  Apartment living does not allow for such hobbies and most often I'm are relegated to store-bought produce that just missed the boat in the taste department. Oh it's not really bad-bad.  But anyone who has picked a sun-ripened tomato right off the plant in their own the garden will know what I'm talking about when I say that a sore back, aching muscles and dirty fingernails are a small price to pay for that special treat of your own garden-fresh vegetables.  There really is a difference in the taste!.

We spent a winter in southern Florida back in the eighties and we were dumbfounded to see how they grew tomatoes down there.  It was coral rock and fertilizer and water. Because the coral rock does not retain water, it was covered with plastic to keep the water from evaporating!  They grew lots of tomatoes and hauled them to market with big trucks where they were packaged for export to places like our grocery stores.  After witnessing that "mass production" of my favorite vegetable, I understand why I willingly put up with those sore muscles to grow my own tomatoes.  I just prefer my home grown beauties.  That chemical fertilizer and water and coral rock just cannot produce that same quality.  And that's only talking about tomatoes! Other vegetables endure the same fate.

So I can't say I'm having fun when I'm in pain.  (My body is used to sitting at a computer for the better part of the day, not bending, weeding, hoeing and digging in the soil.) But I'm still an old farmer at heart so I'm nuts enough to like working with the soil.  So it hurts sometimes. So what! It's worth it! Tomorrow I'm having fresh garden salad that I grew myself. And I've already long forgotten the sore muscles that I suffered with when I planted, weeded and hoed around it!