Rubber Boots & Flip Flops

Ordinarily the knee high rubber boots have long been stored away in exchange for flips flops and clogs, but then began the great rains of 2008. A significant pile of mud covered boots in a variety of shapes and sizes litters the side porch. A broom seemingly in perpetual motion combating the inevitable trail of mud and dried clay leans ever so tenuously against a post. The flip flops have returned to the closet waiting a reprieve as do the farmers from this damp moist and all too frequent weather.

Visitors to the farm stand are visibly humored when they see the band of youngsters marching down from the fields, buckets brimming with potatoes, berries and beans, each outfitted in the colorful mud splattered foot wear. The pristine looking farm stand does a formidable job at disguising the reality of the messy field work. The carefully scrubbed and artfully displayed items create the illusion this is how they always are in the natural environment in which they grow. The truth is that in years of less plentiful precipitation they actually do look that wonderful from field to stand with just a light brushing.

As the deluge continues deeper and deeper into August the rubber wear seems destined to remain a fixture on the porch and the flip flops forgotten at least for a while longer. As a farmer you really need to look at life as a glass half full. This year it is very full! The well will not go dry, the trees will grow more robust and the bare spots in the lawn will disappear. But when will we be able to harvest tomatoes and what kind of flavor will they have? We sigh with the knowledge that we simply must wait patiently just like our flip flops!

Richard Malcom
The Schoolhouse Farmer