you can't eat it

I wonder sometimes -- quite often actually -- what the hell people think that they are doing that is all that bloody important.

It is June.  Fruit is coming in by the basket full.  Maybe not bushel basket but, harvested diligently there are TONS of gooseberries, and harvested and weeded diligently the ever-bearing strawberries and whatever kind of dual harvest raspberries we have are producing wonderfully.  Luckily we have a daughter #2 to be diligent and encourage the rest of us.  And then there is the Trump factor which has put a bit of urgency to the task.  And today the blueberries joined in although today ran out of daylight enough to make the harvest what with everything else going on.

Everything else?  Normal chores first of all.  All animals have to be fed, including humans, and then there is clean up.  There are projects and I don't really know what happened on those but I'll bet something happened.  The farm I work at had a horse that had to be put down due mostly to age catching up to him.  We had a load of garden hay here already to unload, and another short load (15 bales) of good hay to haul home and unload.  The food adventure today was making Indian (from India) food for the first time -- kachori and samosas.  The diligent harvest of berries, including a smattering of the blueberries before the call for all hands on deck for them tomorrow.

But most of the garden hay today went to mulch around the raspberries.  We have a nice area reserved for raspberries now and they are being well taken care of and are doing well.  We're going to put some of that barrier fence up around them but are still working toward that.  But in the last few days there have been some unexplained losses -- the tops of some of the plants wilt, or break off.  What is going on?

In checking, there was some borer something making little lines and above that line would die.  Back home to google.  Turns out something is laying its eggs in there and the life cycle is thus:  it lays eggs.  Tops of plants die but that isn't a huge problem.   Eggs hatch, larvae migrate down the cane and eventually back up, doing some damage, maybe not fatal damage but some damage, and repeat the process.  The best control is simply to go behind whatever is laying its eggs and cut the cane off an inch or a few below where it is damaged.  Voila, eggs have nowhere to migrate, maybe never hatch even, life cycle interrupted.

We all thought that was pretty neat.  I told someone else about it.  Her reaction?  "That's a lot of work."  Do you see my furrowed brow at that?  What else exactly are you doing?  How long do you think that takes in a small patch like that?  When you are harvesting the daily ripe berries anyway?  You do like to eat, don't you?  Do you think that shit just appears on your plate?  In the produce section?  In the freezer?  Do you think whoever harvested it deserves starvation pay?  Do you really think laying waste to the earth, the water, the air is a solution for anything?  Do you want to eat those berries after you've laid chemical waste to whatever that little bug is?  Who are you?  Did you vote for Trump?

Well, yes, she did.  She also said, "That's what I believe and you aren't going to change my mind."  Classic Red Queen, "Verdict first!  Evidence later!"  Which really, that's religion, and especially the asshole Christians and racists and Christian racists who are behind this whole Trump fiasco.  "Some of my best friends are black" doesn't actually hold water.

It has always seemed to me that since we have to eat, we might as well be passionate about food.  It has always seemed to me that eating is vital to health, and health is worth more than your insurance is worth so why are you willing to pay so little for it?  Whatever it is you "do", you can't eat it.

Live smaller.  Grow food.