How does your Garden Grow?

Our garden is (was - more in a minute) looking fabulous. We have four tall gorgeous tomato plants and the fruit is there - just needs to ripen. Our pepper plants are also growing, and we can see the itty bitty peppers that will soon grow to an edible size. The peas are so sweet and tender, and the zucchini and summer squash plants are huge - take a look at my first EVER veggies from my garden - three great looking, great tasting zucchinis!!! (And a cutie pie too :)





I am going to shred and freeze these three for use when we get back - zucchini bread sounds so good - just no time to make it this week...

So, on to the was --- Sunday night a monstrous storm rolled through our area. Lots of wind (clocked at 60+ mph) and a community north of us had softball size hail. Some areas in the north-central part of our county were absolutely devastated. There was not a confirmed tornado, but lots of rotation with the storm, and some farmers in that area lost their entire crop, which because of the ethanol craze, is corn.

On Monday morning, I got up to let Molly out and noticed that my corn, which had been four beautiful, statueseque rows just ready to start producing cobs, was flattened...FLATTENED! A few stalks towards the very end, the tallest and strongest, were still standing. But it literally looked like something had come and driven over it with a steamroller. I was instantly depressed and very sad, because when you have put time, effort, love and anticipation into something, to see it destroyed is difficult. We were so happy with our FIRST gardening effort, and how well it was coming...and its gone. And this got me thinking. This corn, my small 4 x20 plot is a hobby - it is not my livelihood. How - HOW devastating it must be for farmers to lose their entire year in one 15 minute storm. To see their hard work, their effort, their time, and their financial means gone

I was expressing how I felt to my mom the other day and she told me a story from when she was a child:

It was mid-August 1967 and her aunt and uncle had driven up to visit for the weekend. They were having a great time, when the storm clouds moved in, and hail began to fall. She remembers them all watching the storm from the kitchen window and seeing the feelings of despair on my grandpa's face. Harvest was set to begin in within a week - and in a moment, it was all gone...She said that in an instant his face just fell. She remembers this and she was only 13 at the time. So, while I may be upset about this, and feel sadness, I feel for the farmers.