The Customer is Always Right.....?

"I’ve had the first one of the year…..more to come.  A customer wants to know which ….uhhh…let me copy and paste this because I can’t do it justice.

Please advise."

I take a deep breath. Our family grows a lot of plants for the woman sending us this email.  We ship vegetable starter plants, finished hanging baskets and flowering pots, and...starting this year....herbs and cucumber plants, stevia and edamame (yep, edible soybeans) and a host of other flowering annuals.  In our greenhouses, we grow not just hybrid tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, but also heirloom tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, destined for the patios and gardens of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, with some making their way as far north as the Dakotas.  Last year we fielded questions about our entire production system for growing the vegetables that would eventually bloom and produce something edible: were they organic; did they contain GMOs? (insinuating that being GMO is a contagion one can catch.)   But the letter she was preparing to copy and paste..copied and pasted here ....was clearly one for the record books.  Read it and weep.

"I need to know which plants that you sell are genetically modified - what I mean by genetically modified are plants that undergo unnatural genetic engineering including shooting genes into chromosomes.  I am fine with plants that have been selectively bred.  Selective breeding is a natural process of natural selection.  I would prefer native but will accepts selective breeding options.  If any of these flowering plants are native and not altered in any way, I need to know that for sure.  I would like to place a sizable order but your plants are not marketed to indicate which ones may be unnaturally genetically modified.  I do not want to kill bees and other pollinators by planting unsafe plants for them.  I am also selective about considering plants that produce vegetables for our consumption.  I only plant non genetically modified (no lab created seeds) food plants for my family's consumption and only use organic soil.  I do not use miracle grow or other harmful products in my food gardens.  If your food plants are not modified, you need to indicate it for sure.  I need to know, for sure, that the flowering ornamental plants I consider from your company will not be harmful in any way to our ecosystem."

Sigh.  Really, where does one start.  With the confused, incomprehensible, and value laden  differentiation between 'natural' and whatever it's antithesis is considered to be?  (Unsafe? Harmful? Unselective, perhaps?  Foreign, heaven forfend.....)  How can we possibly cut a Gordian knot that defines "selective"breeding as a "natural" process of "natural" selection!!?  Selection involves a choice...by someone or something.  In this case, the someone is a human being.  In the broadest sense, yes, a human being is certainly something "natural", but using that interpretation makes all genetic alteration natural and I don't think that's what the writer intended to imply at all.  Choosing a desirable characteristic is certainly "selection", but there is nothing "natural", aka accidental or arbitrary, about it.

Let's continue. No, I'm afraid none of the flowering plants we are growing for this account are 'native'.  They are annuals and unmistakably altered (bred) for color, hardiness, disease resistance, long blooming, and probably, drought tolerance, seeing as many of the flowers purchased by our customers have to endure conditions that are quite "unnatural".... roots constrained to a very small volume of soil and watered once a week or less....  But no problem: if one desires a "natural" planting there are other options.  Just let these highly improved annuals reseed for year or two and the offspring will revert to the pallid ancestors of sporadic bloom and sprawling habit. Or grow your own natives from seed or purchased perennials.  There ARE indeed grand and garden worthy native plants; I'm a huge fan.  But growing indigenous species will not make you a better person or provide more habitat for pollinators or butterflies than a pot of lantana or a planting of pentas.  Grow 'em both; that's my advice!

And let's get one thing perfectly straight; there isn't going to be a genetically modified seed or plant in any of our greenhouses this year.  I wish there were!  I wish there was a way to prevent fungus from spotting zinnias, botrytis from browning geraniums, and put a stop to the downy mildew plague that has devastated impatiens the last few years!  If one buys a tomato from us, it may be a brand new hybrid with lots of letters after its name signifying its resistance to various nasty fungi...or one can choose something tried and true like Rutgers or Big Boy....but we will be just as happy to sell you a heritage tomato variety like Cherokee or German Johnson.  Choice is good, and one need only leaf through a catalog like Totally Tomatoes to realize the past, present, and future of home garden production offers a cornucopia of decisions.  

While I'm on my garden soapbox, allow me to point out that it would be a really tough job to find a totally inorganic soil.  Even an abused garden plot will contain a fair amount of organic matter in the form of stems, leaves, roots, mulch and other leftovers in various stages of decomposition.  I guess my grandkids' sandbox might be considered an inorganic garden spot...but not after they've pounded a half dozen gourds into pulp and planted the seeds.....

Ecosystem is such a sterile technical term.  A garden can be many things...organized or unkempt, monotone or multi-hued, edible or ornamental, frivolous or practical. Forgive me if I believe planting flowers and vegetables, whether for consumption or pleasure, is a net gain for the earth and all the creatures thereof.  We grow plants for a living...and for love.  That's the kind of rule I can live with....

On This Day.....

You've seen us. 

We're the car just ahead of you that simultaneously brakes, flips on the blinker, and turns precipitously as soon as we spy a historical marker.  We are the people for whom the tongue and cheek plaque, "*ON THIS SITE IN (name a date), NOTHING HAPPENED*" was created

.

And, to be perfectly honest, most days are like that.  Put a big X through the bulk of your Mondays through Sundays and call it good. Most of our ancestors lived their lives recorded in the briefest of statistics, despite what Ancestry.com and their ilk advertise.  For centuries, only the most well heeled sat for portraits and but few of them look out at us from museum walls. The advent of photography brought the weddings, graduations, and family portraits of stiff unsmiling persons not meeting the cameraman's eye and arranged as carefully as fruit and flowers in a still life. "ON THIS DATE.....THEY HELD THEIR BREATH...."

Enter TimeHop.  Suddenly, every date has its day.  Every birthday...naturally.  Every walk on the beach...of course.  Also...a rosy cheeked 'cheese' snapped on an iPhone on February 23, 2009 in the number 8 greenhouse...

...and some cuties in college gear and snow boots splashing in a man-made mud puddle in the big house.

On February 24, 2010,.TimeHop  brings a mosaic of plug trays of posies ...clearly an overwhelming kaleidoscope of work to come for the photographer and friends.....

No mud puddles in 2013, where Lizzie and Abbie are excavating in the bare dirt around a new hydrant in the #7 greenhouse in their school clothes.

I'm not so sure Abbie isn't making dust angels.

Hurst Greenery spring training 2012.  No, Josh is not pushing a cart; we don't let the kids do that before they turn three....Joke! Joke!  

February 2012...the beginning of a dreadful drought year, though we couldn't know it at the time.  The geese were low over the #9 greenhouse that February 23.  And I had a newer phone...an iPhone 4.

And the very next day...on February 24....a thick frosting of snow left by the retreating clouds....

 And some wishful thinking about palm trees and beach chairs as recorded later that night.

Yeah.  She definitely needs her toes in the sand.  Still February 2012.

Beaches are for daydreaming.  In real time, the greenhouses were building  big icicles in February of 2013.

And Aaron is old enough for some elementary basketball!  That means some serious bleacher time.

And it's February 23 again. Every week in February is like Groundhog Day and Christmas wrapped together.  FedEx, or UPS, or a Tagawa Greenhouse grower truck arrives dropping off 2, 4, 6, 8 or several pallets of stacked boxes.   Before we ever plant, we have to unpack.  Lucky to have these guys helping back in 2014.

Ok, ok. No child was harmed in the taking of these pictures. Trust me, that's a rubber knife Josh is holding wrong side up.

The iPhone 5 shows me pinching fuchsias so they will branch into a rounded fountain of blooms.

Told you we do Groundhog Day.  Here's another colorful delivery of cuttings: coleus and calibrachoa and New Guinea impatiens destined for big planters and hanging baskets.  That's what we were planting  on February 23rd in 2015.

Not everyone was planting: some of us were hanging around like monkeys.

Hello, moon over the sycamores at 502 Spruce and a goodnight to February 23, a day without much history...but plenty to remember.  See you again soon.

These Are the Good Old Days...A Christmas Card

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Let your heart be light..."

"Here we are as in olden days

Happy golden days of yore

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Gather near to us once more"

Merry Christmas Letter to all of you! Our 2016 report is blessedly full of gathering together, of celebration and exploration, and that means taking our show on the road.  What better introduction than these lyrics from 'Gypsy'?

Wherever we go, whatever we do

We’re gonna go through it together

We may not go far but sure as a star

Wherever we are it’s together

The first of the year found us unloading the Hurst Greenery semi  in Ben, Kenzie and Levi's new home just south of I 435 and a soybean field.  The cousins helped put away Levi's toys while the rest of the crew settled furniture and stacked boxes.

That was just a warmup to the main act:  an Orlando extravaganza orchestrated by the travel team of Schlueter/Harms and enlivened by the addition of Alissa and Bella.  Blake and I: just along for the rides...at Disney World,  Disney Hollywood Studios, and an emergency run from Celebration to rescue Alissa's wallet!  Fourteen of us in a vacation home, kids in the heated pool, watching alligators at Wild Florida! and eating oysters at Cocoa Beach: our Missouri posse found laughter aplenty on our winter getaway....

You gotta have heart

All you really need is heart

When the odds are sayin'

You'll never win

That's when a grin

Should start.

February and March are months that require both teamwork...and heart.  The greenhouse we began to build in January got finished in March; we moved the first plants in as the last bit of wiring was tested.  Aaron took another trip to D.C. with us, destroyed his first lobster dinner and visited Thomas Jefferson's library in the Library of Congress.  We used Lee's birthday as an excuse for a girls' night out to see 'Newsies' at the Orpheum.

It's a fine life

Carrying the banner through it all

A mighty fine life

Carrying the banner tough and tall

See the headline

Newsies on a mission

Kill the competition

Sell the next edition

What a fine life

Blake's the kind of guy who's always carrying the banner...for all of us in agriculture.  His roadshow takes him in front of the Family Farm Alliance in Las Vegas, on a panel for the NPR show 'Going There: How We Eat' in Kansas City, and digging in for the groundbreaking at the new Science Center exhibit "Grow" in St. Louis.  He might have set a record for turnaround time between suit coat and overalls the last week in April when he drove to the greenhouse from St. Louis, changed clothes, and took off that afternoon in the truck and trailer for Davenport, Iowa.  

Through thick and through thin

All out or all in

And whether it's win, place or show

With you for me and me for you

We'll muddle through whatever we do

Together, wherever we go

In April and May, it's all about teamwork...and muddling through whatever we do.  'Nuff said!

June ushers in our favorite season of the year: baseball season!  Whether its a weekend tournament in Burlington Junction, or pitching practice during a backyard barbeque, baseball is a welcome break from the other family activity: planting mums.  

Days may not be fair always,

That's when I’ll be there always.

Not for just an hour,

Not for just a day,

Not for just a year,

But always.

We celebrated Millie and Charlie's 60th anniversary with a blowout party at the Community Building, with friends, lots of family,  food, dancing, cake, fireworks (by special dispensation), and photographic foolishness. A slide show brings back so many happy memories...but even a hundred photos merely scratches the surface of the full, lively, loving, and busy, "always" of this special couple.

More baseball...in St. Louis.  More family..wearing Farm Bureau shirts of  Cardinal Red.  More fireworks....at Redbarn in California. Ping pong in the barn loft, horseshoes in the orchard (team Mark always wins!), home-made ice cream, the Grand Old Flag, and fireworks debris raining down on the venerable red barn make for an evening to remember for young and old.

Take me out to the ball game

Take me out with the crowd

Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks

I don't care if I never get back

Let me root, root, root

For the Cardinals.....

And we're off...again!  This time for the second annual baseball road trip...in Milwaukee for a matchup between the Brewers and the Cards at Miller Park.  From points south, west and east, we converge to eat barbeque (of course), walk along Lake Michigan, and toast a Cards  victory with a brew or two, of course!

Don´t know why

There´s no sun up in the sky

Stormy weather...

Don't get me wrong...we credit the stormy weather in July for the bountiful harvests of October.  But the constant rains and the hot weather in between were not ideal for our field grown mum crop.  The Lord giveth, but the weather taketh away.....

No rain for the Northwest Tractor Cruise, a gathering where little boys in rubber boots who love green machines can find happiness.  No rain, just dripping sweat, for the Atchison county fair where kids with red faces and sodden tees nudged their pigs around the sandy ring and smiled for the buyers at the auction.  

No better reward for all that effort than a trip to the beach. Good sports that Aaron, Lizzie, Gabe, Abbie and Josh are, they endured the 16 hour road trip from Tarkio to Destin with liberal application of movies and a system for trading seats every two hours or so. Trampolines and sandcastles, oysters for Grandpa Blake and cheeseburgers for Joshie,and the steady rotation between pool and beach made for very quiet mornings at the Sandestin Hilton.

Sleepy in Sandestin

Sure, there was an election this year.  But before that...and after that, there were birthdays to celebrate with trips to the zoo and t-ball, big sombreros and tacos.  There was yet another family move...yeah, we don't do that for a hobby, but we've had a lot of practice....when Ann, Matt and crew picked up fifteen years of life and stuffed it into a smaller house and garage while they wait to build their new home out on the farm. There was a brand new school year with a seventh grader in the family and a new cycle of fall sporting events.

I don’t feel very different

She said I know it’s strange

I guess I’ve gotten used to

These little aches and pains

And it's fall with those late mums blooming, and combines bringing in record yields around the wet spots, and trips to pumpkin patches and football games and fundraisers and a birthday with a zero and a beautiful new quilt to grace the old old bed in the "little kids" room.  

Someday soon, we all will be together

If the fates allow

Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

We offered our Thanksgiving for all God's blessings this year and pray for His presence in our homes and hearts during this Advent season.  Being together is one of the greatest gifts granted and we are blessed every Christmas we celebrate with our loved ones, even as we  accept the imperfections and "muddling" that accompanies our daily life.  

Last weekend we walked through big fat flakes of falling snow to the blazing lights of the Private Bank Theater and the star power of 'Hamilton'.  This weekend we crunched through the sub zero snow to bask in the glow of the familiar surroundings of the Liberty Theater and sing along with the cast of "White Christmas".  With that show in mind, here's our parting Christmas wish for you....

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white