Questioning my Sanity and getting an Answer

Sometimes I get a little doubtful about the path I've chosen for myself.  Why am I out here in a quasi hurricane on my knees with frozen fingers meticulously cutting individual leaves off of my patch of Bordeaux spinach?  Why am I out here in 110 degree weather desperately trying to fix an irrigation break before the heat kills every living thing that I've spent the last six months nurturing?  Why do I do these things when I could go get a cushy desk job, go back to wearing tailored suits and high heels, go out to lunch with other similarly-attired professionals, getting manicures and carrying a briefcase instead of carrying 50 pound feed sacks around?  Here's part of the answer - an email I received yesterday from a stranger in Chicago:

Hi Cynthia,

I happened to view a television program, about Love Apple farm, at a friends house on satellite. I searched for your site in Google, and went through all of your site.  In fact, I am ordering various heirloom tomato seeds.

I wanted to tell you what your site has done for me, personally. I am a 56-year old guy from the Chicagoland area.  I am of Italian ancestry (of which I am VERY proud)!  Your site, and Love Apple Farm, brought me back to my childhood.  I can remember my wonderful grandfather, very much an old-world Italian man.  We lived, as many immigrant families did, in an apartment building. My grandmother and grandfather owned a 3-flat.  They lived on the first floor, we lived on the second, and their other child, and his family, lived on the third floor.  In those days, immigrant families  stayed very close. My grandparents owned the vacant lot next to the 3-flat.

My grandfather took that vacant lot, and turned it into a little farm….in the heart of Chicago.  In that lot, he had peach trees, sweet and sour cherry trees, pear trees, apricot trees…. you name it, and if it grew, it was in that garden!  I remember rows of beans, peppers, lettuce, celery, and TOMATOES!  I remember just strolling through the rows of tomato plants, and picking tomatoes, rubbing them on my shirt to clean them, and eating them on-the-spot!  There is a memory burned into my brain, and to this day, there is NOTHING like the smell of tomatoes fresh off the plant…in fact, I STILL like to run the stem of a tomato plant between my thumb and index finger, and just savor the scent that is released on my fingers!  There is also NOTHING in the world like the flavor of a warm tomato (from the heat of the sun), the smell of the tomato, and the taste right off of the plant!  God, did your site bring back some happy, and yes, some sad memories!

Thank you so much, Cynthia, for your site, and what you do!  I'll bet you NEVER received an email like this…..it's amazing what you have rekindled in my mind!  Again, I want to SINCERELY thank you!  It has been quite a few years since I have been in your part of the Country, and I don't know if I will ever be back there, but California also holds a very special place in my heart.  I have been through your area several times, and of all the vacation experiences I have had in my life, NONE match the  experiences that I have had in California!  It ranks #1 in my heart, and in my vacation memories!  Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco….mine is in California….as a whole!

You have a wonderful site, and you are doing a wonderful thing at that Farm!

Thank You So Much, Cynthia!

Sincerely,

Mike Optie

(printed with Mike's permission - what can I say, I'm verklempt!)

Comments

[Kate]

I feel the same way, here in South Australia. This week it is over 100 degrees everyday. We have a drought and water restrictions - why am I growing this stuff when I could go to an air-conditioned shop and buy it? But if people like you and I give up, then those like Mike and others would never know the joy of that tomato, or of seeing those tiny seeds become plants and food and give us such wonderful feelings of fulfillment. Not many people these days get fulfillment in their lives - I do, and I want others to feel it too. I wrote a thing on my seedsavers blog called "Sowing the seeds of civilisation". Please read it. One day maybe I will visit Love Apple Farm, but for now I just enjoy knowing you and other vegetable-gardening bloggers are there, keeping me going.

[Casey]

What a lovely post, Cynthia. Thanks for sharing it.

[Jeannie]

The shear poetry and magic of what you do is the gift of your blood, sweat and tears. Your dedication to your craft is matched only by your passion for what you do. And that thing you do inspires and touches so many. It wouldn't be summer without your tomato mania speading throughout the land. Yeehaw!