Hey Sheila, I've wanted to reply to your post for a while now, but I truly haven't come up with anything I think could possibly be comforting. We are now in the midst of our first season of culling, and also grappling with the same feelings. I have really had to wrestle with the logic of it all. Am I coldhearted? No, more so than when we bought meat exclusively from the grocer. Was I MORE cold hearted before, being ignorant and likely contributing to a meat industry and their sometimes reprehensible practices? Argueable. If i disassemble the process, which part(s) strikes a nerve? THe killing? The dressing? The eating? And why should I feel differently about meat i never "knew" from the grocer? Hardest for me is the feeling of betrayal. I'm amused at the human behaviors we engage in to comfort ourselves....how we are frozen with our kill, stroking it until the inevitable nerve twitching subsides because we can't bear that it should 'die alone', or how everyone gets extra grain after a a comrade goes to "freezer camp". These silly things are however, signals that we are different than say, the coyotes, which are far less benevolent. However idiotic, I am grateful for all the inner turmoil. Would I rather be like the coyote? and to that end, aren't I much more like the coyote in my attitude toward the meat I bring home from the store? A week or so ago, my co-worker asked if I didn't wish I could wiggle my nose and voila! All the birds would be dressed and cut and packaged and done! I think he was surprised when I very quietly and solemnly replied...'no'. It's hard, very hard, and I don't like it, but there's something very valuable about going through it too. I take from the experience a commitment to give our remaining animals the very best I'm capable of, a feeling of responsibilty I may not otherwise feel so deeply. And for the sacrificed lamb, this is the greatest lesson it can give to me, and the most important legacy it can leave for its fellow creatures in my care. All creatures must come, and must pass. When we take them without their permission, we are humbled. We pray they move to an elevated state after this life, (if they wish), and shine our gratefulness upon those that remain. I think the greatest means by which we can insult them is to waste their bodies and/or ignore their teachings. In the greater scheme of things, I think they would be content with that philosophy. I hope they are. In nature, they would still likely be eaten. Being a creature of higher consciousness (unlike the coyote) I can honor them with appreciation, or I can not. To me, coldheartedness is about THAT choice. I have no idea if this rant helps or not, but i definitely know what you're going through. Hang in there and keep trying to sort it out. It takes courage for the thinking person. Congraulate yourself as being part of the inspired. LFRJ

Our market opened last month and our first day was very cold and drippy (it even snowed one county over from us). It didn't affect sales. Our current weather is pretty warm but so far we haven't had the wall to wall crowds that I was hoping for. This is my first year at this market and I am happy with the move - sales have increased each Saturday. I still need to make more money but other vendors that have been with this market for years are doing ok so I think I will stick it out and see what happens. Usually once the weather gets hot and buggy people give up on the yard - and plant sales drop off. So there is huge push to move plants before that magic moment. This Saturday will be in the 90's and I will be watching to see if it affects sales - or my level of perkiness as I stand on the asphalt pavement. Between all the years I have sold plants I still cannot determine a pattern to customers. What sells well one week won't move at all the next week.

I had my first one on April 24th, the day it snowed and we had winds gusting to 40 mph! What a day to arrive in warm, sunny Ohio .... I've since see 2 males and a female, they love the buckeye trees. katbird, keep checking, I'm just up the road in Germantown.

Becky, Congratulations! Isn't it fun when you get to start seeing the fruits of your labor? For cabbage loopers, the easiest solution is to spray the plants with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)'Kurstaki'. It is a bacteria that specifically kills caterpillars. You spray it on the plants they are chewing holes in, they ingest it as they eat, they get sick and die within a day or so. The nice thing about it is that it only targets caterpillars. The bad thing about it is that it targets caterpillars that might otherwise turn into butterflies, too, so use it carefully. You can find it pretty much anywhere that sells pesticides (including places like Wa-Mart or Lowe's or Home Depot), and there are many different brands. Look for something labeled Thuricide, Dipel, Caterpillar-Killer, Bio-trol, etc. and read the active ingredient list to make sure it contains Bt. (For future reference, there are other forms of Bt that kill other pests, including Bt "Israelensis" which targets mosquito larvae in water and Bt 'San Diego' which targets Colorado Potato Beetles and other leaf-chewing beetles.) With tomatoes, it is hard to give an "average", but usually you will have ripe fruit within about 7 weeks of the appearance of blossoms. There is wide variation, though, since some tomatoes (like Early Girl) produce fruit roughly 53 to 57 days from transplantation, and others, like Brandywine, take 90 days or longer. Also, the widely quoted Days to Maturity (DTM) for tomatoes are averages only, and I have found that many tomatoes produce ripe fruit in fewer days in our hot climate than in cooler climates. Determinates seem to bloom anywhere from a little later to a lot later, but yours should have blooms by mid-June if your Early Girls have already bloomed. Most of my determinates already have fruit and flowers, but I planted a lot earlier than y'all did. About the Swiss Chard and lettuce......Swiss Chard produces well in the summer, and in general, lettuce doesn't do well after temps are regularly exceeding 85 degrees, although a few kinds are more heat tolerant than others. So, don't take it too hard if the lettuce peters out in the heat....that is typical. Keeping it very well watered and shading it a bit can help prolong its' life. I am glad things are going so well in the garden. Hope your weekend was terrific and that you have a great Memorial Day too. Dawn