A Word About Farmers

Anyone who thinks farmers are simple-minded is extremely uninformed.

I just came from my first walnut meeting. It only lasted 4 hours, but by the time I left, my brain had new wrinkles.

Can you use the words "epidemiological models, monocyclic disease, and primary inoculum" in one sentence? If you can, will your sentence make sense?

What? That was easy?

How about "mitochondrial cytochrome, oxidase 1 haplotype"?

Gotcha there, didn't I?

Had I not spent 4 years at UCDavis, interspersing my History degree with Chemistry, Biology, Zoology, etc., the four hours this morning would have been four hours of gibberish.

I walked in thinking, "You hire a farmer, irrigate 9 times a year, and harvest. No problemo."

I walked out with my brain spinning with FDA, EPA, and CDC regulations - Did you know that it is against the law for a walnut farmer to sell his walnuts personally? He has to have a permit to be a handler to be allowed to sell his nuts.

I learned about Thousand Cankers Disease, codling moths, weed control, and walnut blight.

I learned about copper and bacteria and who knows what else.

My brain is full.

early bloomers, late bloomers, black walnuts, English walnuts, ovacides, larvacides, adulticides, dormancy, tillage...

oh my.

Number One Son is the official manager, but he started a new job yesterday, rendering him unavailable for today's educational interlude.

Looks like hubby gets the hobby, and if there is one, I'm going to get the headache.

I think I need to do some quilting. Not some, a lot. A lot, a lot. And then some.