Tea at Trianon: Gardening vs Farming

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Gardening vs Farming

From The Farmer's Daughter:

So how is farming different than gardening? It starts at the very beginning. I bought plants and plugged them into the ground. On the farm, Mom started seeding in March. Each seed was carefully inserted into a cup of dirt. We had an older heater for the greenhouse to keep them warm on cooler nights. Sweet corn was planted in stages, so we had a steady supply throughout the summer. Tree fruits were protected from late frosts.

For my garden, I had to weed my raised beds regularly. I’d don my leather gloves and get to work. The entire process took half an hour. On the farm, it was never so easy. We usually laid down a biodegradable black plastic that both kept the soil warm and stopped the weeds. But there were still times when we spent hours on our hands and knees pulling weeds.

I didn’t really worry much about pests in the garden. Sure, the rabbit had his fill of my produce, but insects weren’t an issue. But pests are always a problem on the farm, especially for fruits and vegetables. Dad had to keep a strict schedule for spraying; even waiting a day too long could make a huge difference. I mean, people get pretty squeamish about worms in sweet corn.

Harvest in my garden was different too. Each day I grabbed my little basket and walked to the garden. I filled it up with yummies and was done in about 10 minutes. But harvest on the farm is longer, harder, and a logistics game. Just for our small cantaloupe patch, it took an hour and five people to accomplish daily. We overfilled anywhere from six to eight bulk bins each day (there’s about 200 cantaloupes to a bin). And we had to use a forklift to move those bins from the trailer into the cooler. In other words, gardening is a fun hobby; farming is work. (Read more.)