July 12, 2009: Week 7

It was a sad day at Mud Creek Farm this past Sunday. Erin is usually very easygoing and optimistic, but when the work-crew arrived, she looked concerned. She discovered late blight on the tomatoes and we needed to “contain” it. We would spray the smaller plants first with a bacteria spray (organically accepted) and then remove the plants to avoid the spread to other tomatoes and potatoes. Initially, when she told us about the blight I envisioned more spraying than removal.

So I had this spray device (35lb + when full) strapped to my back and then I sprayed each plant (over and under and stem). It was sort of cool, and a partner and I teamed up to spray about 5 rows that morning. All of the potatoes would had to be sprayed since this blight has its origins tracing back to the Great Potato Famine in Ireland.

Then we needed to remove the plants. The reality started to sink in. We would be removing all the tomato plants close to the ones that were affected. We ended up removing two 15 ft rows of plants and one complete row (about 180 ft). My heart was breaking. Each of these plants had at least 12 green tomatoes that were growing beautifully.

Erin gave the instructions clearly. We had to watch where we were stepping, block the downwind to avoid spores flying around, and carefully encase the plant into the plastic bag. Then we took the bags away by loading the bags in a parked car for disposal in the trash; composting was not an option. I am glad that my shift was over midway through the removal. I really do not if I could have handled the scene of a removal of a full row of tomatoes.

Removing weeds and their roots from the ground is a great accomplishment and displays our diligence, hard work and control over nature; blight spores are so damn small and powerfully contaminating, causing such damage and havoc and fear. There is something deep and spiritual about the presence of evil in a good environment. I am too upset to try to figure it out though.