On Being a
Farm Wife
(and other hazard
Joyce Bupp
It took awhile this year.
Winter’s cold hung around
extra long. A good part of spring
hid behind a summer-like
drought. An early heat wave was
followed by a misplaced Arctic
cold front. Then, when it finally
rained, the damp, dreary, moisty
and mildewy stuff dripped for
days like a leaky pipe. (And this
past week, sweatshirt nights in
July. Go figure.)
Frankly, we were beginning to
wonder if anything was going to
amount to anything, cropwise.
Then, suddenly, like the na
tional birthday fireworks which
lit our skies this past week with
sparkling explosions, plants
around farms and gardens have
blasted ihto lush growth.
And the returns that farmers
and gardeners alike work so hard
to achieve are beginning to rain
down like the aftermath of those
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colorful aerial displays. But way
more useful. And tasty.
“Grandma, grandma!
Squash!”
Before I could say the words
“let’s just pick the biggest ones,”
yellow summer squash were fly
ing from the sprawling plants in
the garden and into our garden
basket. Only with some fast talk
ing was I able to con our produce
pickers into letting me keep a few
of the yellow squash for our own
lunch.
Of course, anytime kids are
that eager to indulge in any vege
table much less squash, of all
things, we try to refrain from of
fering discouragement. So we
moved on to discover the first
zucchini large enough to accom
pany its bumpy-skinned yellow
cousins into the saute pan.
It’s the blossom end that was
deformed, creating a pig-shaped
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zuke with a fat, stubby tail. We
decided the misshapen vegetable,
only about half the usual zucchi
ni size, was either the “zucch” or
the “ini” part, but weren’t sure
which. I found a twin to it a day
later; sliced up and sauted with
butter and seasonings. The inter
rupted growth may have resulted
from the weather extremes, but it
didn’t affect the taste.
Mere yards from the squash
colony, field com finally decided
to take the season seriously and
get down to some real growth. A
couple of inches of late June rain,
plus several afternoons of sauna
like heat, were just what the com
needed, thank you very much.
The Farmer barely managed to
finish applying a booster applica
tion of nitrogen fertilizer on be
fore the stretching corn plant had
elbowed him out of the fields.
Neighbors have been working
long hours combining barley and
wheat, quickly baling up the
straw, then immediately drilling
soybeans into the fields for a sec
ond crop. Second-crop beans
need a prompt summer shower to
germinate and get out of the
ground. A few tenths-of-inches of
thunderstorm fallout within a
day or two was pure serendipity.
And The Farmer rejoiced be
cause it helped rinse that liquid
nitrogen down toward the corn’s
root zone.
Summer storms, which usually
roll over the horizon right in the
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Fullington Joins
American Dairy Staff
SYRACUSE, N.Y. Meghan
Fullington of Brewerton, N.Y.,
has joined the staff of the Ameri
can Dairy Association and Dairy
Council, Inc. as corporate com
munications specialist.
Fullington will be responsible
for coordinating the dairy prin
cess program, assisting with vari
ous responsibilities relating to the
board of directors, handling com
munications with farm-related
publications, and writing and
editing the ADADC newsletter
Promotion Focus.
In the past, Fullington has
been an active promoter of the
middle of iate-afternoon milking,
come as a mixed blessing. We re
joice in the moisture they often
bring, but are extremely wary of
their potential violence; hail, fall
ing limbs, wind-ripped roofing,
lightning threats to cattle, build
ings and people...and milking/
cooling systems shutdowns when
the electric power dies.
After a somewhat rocky start
to this crop season’s weather,
watching com and hay and beans
and small grains grow, day by
day, is tremendously gratifying.
Almost daily, we take lunch to
the back porch, where we can
enjoy for a few moments the re
sponse of growing things to mois
ture and long, sunny days. With
the investment farmers have
planted in the ground in seed,
fertilizer, herbicide, equipment
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 7,2001-B5
dairy industry. She took part in
the dairy princess program as
1997-1998 Onondaga County
Dairy Princess and went on to
serve as the 1998-1999 New York
State First Alternate Dairy Prin
cess. She also enjoys promoting
her family’s Holsteins and Jer
seys at shows throughout the
northeast.
“The dairy industry is one of
the oldest and strongest going,”
Fullington says. “To have this
role in something that has been a
part of my and my family’s lives
for so long gives me great satis
faction.”
and labor, watching crops re
spond with favorable growth
after timely rains is sheer plea
sure...and part of why farmers
farm.
While The Farmer ponders
planting and harvest plans over
lunch, I do eyeball inventory of
the flower beds. What is starting
to bloom, what is finished, what
didn’t, what should be moved,
where the empty holes are, why
weeds still are always twice as
vigorous as anything else? And
why the wild geese have suddenly
decided the lower comer of the
yard, at the first pond, is the
place to spend every midday.
It’s our own backyard enter
tainment center, thought-provok
ing, discussion-starting and, all
natural.
No commercials, either.