Cherry Tomatoes

Most everything I write is geared to the generic set, but today I would like to talk to high school kids, especially farmers. This is written following the 11/11 story in The West Bend News about cherry tomatoes and pictures of FFA. 

Next year Nancy will have hundreds of cherry tomato plants because they self seed. Meaning the seed is hardy and stays in the ground all winter. Mrs G has a list of 29 self-seeding plants, but my favorites, are sunflowers and Morning Glories. Morning Glory are somewhat invasive and you might end up with an entire yard of Morning Glories. Yellow Pear tomatoes can produce thousands of plants. They’re quite tasty. The tomato seed was probably brought by a bird.

A fun winter project for a school class or an FFA project growing self-seeding plants:

1. Take a gallon plastic milk jug, cut in half, but keep the back intact. 

2. Fill bottom half with potting soil 

3. Plant seeds 1 in apart

4. Tape jug back shut and water heavily 

5. Set this out on a late winter day, or anytime. The plants will come up when it is time. When they are 2 inches high leave the jug open, transplant with a teaspoon. The jug acts as a greenhouse.

I envy you guys in FFA. You’re a good looking group, and many are girls. I was raised on a farm and loved farming but I had asthma and we decided that I would go to college, be a teacher, and help farm in summertime. If I had been a farmer I would be a rich guy.  About the attractive girls, as an old man all ladies begin to look good. Beauty no longer is as important as companionship. 

I want to talk a bit more about farming. There are so many new things, hydroponics, growing in greenhouses, and it will take a while to sort things out, what works and what doesn’t work. What a challenge for young people. Today I heard my first computer generated country song. Seems the possibilities are endless. 

I want to end with a trend among young people that is not the final answer. Watching Charlie Kirk, a young student stepped to  the microphone and said that her goal in life is to get married and have a family. Wow. To top it off she was a girl that any boy would be attracted to.

Charlie said that we generally accomplish our goals that we set early in life. Society has sold us a bill of goods. Who says young people must have a lucrative career before they even think of getting married? Now you know that ladies seldom have children after age 40, so that cuts down your child bearing years. 

I met my wife on my senior year of college, she was a sophomore, and I worked a year in my career before we got married, which was somewhat typical in the ’60s. We had four wonderful kids and one of my joys is to see them get together today and the fun they have. I would like to spend one more session on gardening if the good Lord permits.

Today, Monday, before Thanksgiving, I received my first garden catalog.

—James Neuhouser