Bill mentioned a few days ago that his first little tomatoes had been swiped right off the vine. Now I’m paranoid about my first ripening beauties. There are 3 cherry tomatoes and 2 romas that are in various blushing states; I hope they survive until I pick them.
My cherry tomato plant is now taller than I am. Granted, it has a 24” start since it is in a straw bales, but I’m thinking that even without the bale, it’s going to give me a run for the money.
You all know that I started gardening in straw bales after someone here talked about Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook. I hadn’t grown any veggies for years prior to that, but the book was horrifying enough that I started casting about for ways to raise my own tomatoes and that’s when I discovered straw bale gardening. The rest is history.
I have the book The $64 Tomato by William Alexander on hold at the library. Actually it’s “paused” and I keep pushing the pause date back. It’s subtitle is “How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden”. But now I’m a little worried. What if it makes me re-think my straw bale protocol? What if it makes me do the math?
I’m hoping it’s just a fun read with some laughs. Fingers crossed.
Have you ever had a book upend your plans?
Trail Baboon 
Our garden is about three weeks behind where it should be. Let’s hope for a late frost.
I read Going To Extremes, about Alaska, and it cured me of ever wanting to go there.
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Reading the news has cured me of wanting to go to a lot of states.
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All I can think of are a few books that I expected to enjoy for many hours over the space of several days but turned out to be duds that I gave up on after about 50 pages.
Chris in Owatonna
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Well, there was the week or so that I hardly made dinner for my family when reading The Mists of Avalon.
These days reading doesn’t upend my plans so much in the physical realm, but mentally/emotionally – we’ve been reading (taking turns aloud) Kent Nerburn, a white Minn. writer trusted by a Native American elder to tell his view of things. We’ve read two of the trilogy that begins with Neither Wolf Nor Dog, and we’re almost done with his Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce. It truly is The Untold Story of an American Tragedy. I wish everyone would read something by Nerburn.
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I suppose you say that Mists of Avalon was a game changer for me as well, since my cat is named after a character in the book — Nimue.
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Rise and Shine Baboons,
There have been many books that changed me. Today, on my mind, is Black Elk Speaks. He was a fascinating man living through the destruction of his native culture, traveling to Europe with Buffalo Bill. It is his own narration, so it wanders everywhere, including through his precognitive dreams. I am not sure why, but I felt changed after I read his experience.
I am off to work today. Cannot linger and chat.
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So, VS, if you did the math and it revealed that you were producing $64 tomatoes, would you change what you were doing? I wouldn’t.
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Probably not. I’m pretty clear that I’m not saving massive amounts of money. It’s just another hobby and I don’t worry (too much) about how much the other hobbies cost! But 10 years ago I wouldn’t have thought a book would drive me to growing tomatoes in straw bales!!!
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OT, although still about books – next Blevins.
Sunday, September 18
Minnehaha Park
2 p.m.
Started Early, Took My Dog
(A Jackson Brody Novel)
Kate Atkinson
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark
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Afternoon. Been busy today.
I dont remember any books changing my plans, but certainly had some books influence me.
Catch 22 was a big one. For multiple reasons.
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William Alexander sounds unstable and self-dramatizing.
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Don’t know what the royalties from the book amounted to, but he probably got back his $64. Maybe that was the plan to begin with.
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