May 3, 2001

Good morning, all ~

Here in the San Joaquin, Summer is big, bold and blazing. It bursts upon the scene with big bright strawberries followed by cherries and the silking of corn. Next come peaches, plums and nectarines - foods of the gods, most certainly! And as the days and nights grow warmer (hotter!), the corn ripens and the combines turn - sweet corn, plucked tender and juicy from the stalk. Sweet corn gracing BBQ tables and buttery fingers. Just how do big city-folk survive?

It's in the high 80*s and low 90*s this week - you can smell the sweet aroma of strawberries in the warm afternoon air all up and down the road into town.

Summer...
S-unshine glowing late into the night
U-nlimitted strawberries ripe in the fields
M-usical frogs croaking after dusk
M-erry children playing in the sprinklers
E-ryone enjoying BGQ
R-aces by way too fast

For those of you still in the snow and rain and cold - keep the warm thoughts in your heart - summer'll get to you about the time I start whining about weeks on end over 100* with rain still months and months away!

Acres of tomatoe plans suddenly seem to be all around. Funny, I didn't notice them being put in, but now, there are tons of these plants about 8 inches high just all over the place! Ah, another year some farmer managed to make enough $ to escape the encroaching suburbs and plant one more season. Every year when a field is lying fallow, I wonder: is this just crop rotation and replenishment of the earth - or will there be houses there come next spring?

Tomatoes - from reading the lists on the Herlooms forum, I can see I'm gonna have a problem when I have space to plant more than two plants! I can already feel the "call of the wild" to plant more tomatoes than I could ever care for!

Take care all! Happy Thursday!

Karla