Several weekends ago, I spent my Saturday pulling all our tomatoes out and burying them in a giant pile. Last weekend, I killed, plucked and eviscerated our twenty remaining meat chickens. Talk about grisly work. For some reason, ripping the tomato plants out was more difficult a chore, psychologically, than butchering. I certainly had more in common with the animal than the plant, so this emotion surprised me. The only explanation I have for my reaction is that I failed the diseased tomatoes and instead of watching them continue to blacken and spread late blight to my neighbors, I felt unwillingly compelled to destroy them thus ending our tomato season. On the other hand the chickens were healthy, thriving and happy, but their end means our freezer will feed us for another year.
wow, you do stay busy! I have similar guilty feelings about letting the Japanese beetles have their way with our fruit tree leaves. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI would agree that harvesting the meat chickens was much easier to the gut than pulling the tomato plants. Could it be that I had the tomato plants longer since the got started in March or is it because their removal is one more step towards 6 months of no fresh veggies, no gardening and lots of snowblowing.
ReplyDeleteDmarie - Our beetles were outrageous this year and persist despite the cooler temperatures. Fruit trees should be able to take a bit of nibbling. I can't see getting on a ladder to pick them...don't feel too guilty.
ReplyDeletedoglady - Exactly, it's amazing how much effort goes into raising a plant with such a small output. No surprise that we're carnivores...especially in the cold north.