Jabberwocky for 2005 July 16

A field worker died yesterday from the heat, out near where we used to live. His death is a sobering reminder for the rest of us--the food we buy in air-conditioned stores and cook in our air-conditioned houses was grown and harvested by people who spend long hours in hard, hot sticky work, with gnats flying into their eyes and mouths. So the next time you chop into an onion, be grateful for your education and your American opportunities, which make it possible for you to eat the fruits and vegetables without having to grow them.

Even those of us who grow our own fruits and vegetables are staying inside this week. My apple tree has announced it's going to die. I hope that's not true and it's just heat stress. I didn't go out to look at the zucchini yesterday, and today I have a monster! The beets are looking a little peaked, but the new beans and okra I planted are doing fine, and we have lots of tomatoes. I'll be able to make melanzine for Anne and her kids when they get here. Plenty of basil, plenty of chard, and pretty little eggplants and yellow grape tomatoes. Yummers. But I don't plan to spend too long in the garden, and I don't plan to die!

*Moment of silence for the field workers*