And I thought it was bad last year: 2009 The Good, The Bad & The Ugly






I had a freak this morning. Ben has been prepping me for days and I have been in total denial and can cast him a frightening evil eye any time he would mention: "tomatoes not looking too good out there". I have been afraid to look. Afraid to deal with the fact I may have toiled away for months and months all for nothing.....I sucked it up and went for a peek this morning. I can honestly say that we will not have ANY and I repeat NOT ANY field tomatoes this season. All 100 varieties of heirlooms are riddled black with blight and potato beetles. Same goes for all the romas and round slicing varieties we hoped to sell in bulk quantities this year. It was bad last year because of the rain, BUT this year the rain and cool weather started A LOT earlier, along with no sun - a breeding ground for disease and infestations. The greenhouse heirlooms are awesome BUT I do not have quantity this year, so it's going to be scant at each market. I am done my spazz. I farm, this type of thing happens - you learn to suck it up. My dad scolded me one year when I was whining. He was right, not a thing you can do about it, why stress and shit your pants? Along with the bad comes the good. We have not had to irrigate! Our onions, spelt, celery, celariac, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, beets, carrots etc seem to be thriving!! Our peppers are small, but holding their own. We will weather this storm, like we do every year and carry on to deliver tomatoes another year!! I've included pictures of our beautiful onions, spelt and celeriac & celery and also my poor tomatoes and an UGLY pic of one of my heirlooms completely covered in potato beetles!! These buggers are EVERYWHERE!! It is safe to say I will only be eating Ontario greenhouse tomatoes this year, as many of my own as possible. Any field tomatoes around are bound to be sprayed all to hell....

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