This is the time when plants and crops are growing and unlike last year at this time–with a drought–boy, are they growing! There will be harvests soon and there are fresh vegetables and fruits now. In America this time of year is generally one of abundance.
When I was growing up in the middle of Ohio, my relatives who were farmers would come visit with bushels of vegetables, bags of newly harvested popcorn, and other such local food. My family owned a vacant lot that was then on the edge of town and for a few years my dad would rent a tiller and the family would plant and cultivate a huge additional amount of vegetables, gourds, and perhaps berries. This was still a time when mothers would do home canning and line basements with Mason Jars.
I decided one year to plant a row of sunflower seeds since I had a pair of hamsters who needed to be fed. This resulted in so many huge smiling sunflowers that many were left on stalk, drew varmints, crows and other large birds, and eventually resulted in my dad getting a summons for some violation or other concerning attracting vermin. That was the last time we had the garden.
When I was in law school in Washington, DC, I joined at food cooperative. This was at the time of “back to the land,” and while I was definitely not planning to go that route, I did have a taste for fresh local food. As part of the deal at the cooperative, we paid a share of money for the food brought in by the farmers and had to clean, sort and box things for each member share. It always seemed like the work we had to do was in the middle of the night. We would all walk out with huge boxes of vegetables and fruits. There was really too much per person. I would give a lot to neighbors. Nobody turns down juicy huge tomatoes that I have ever known.
And this abundance still exists in the growing number of greenmarkets in New York City and in the farmer markets in the Cooperstown area. My family always seems to buy more than it needs and we end up carting or driving home with more items than we can stuff in the fridge and root cellar. We do blanche and freeze a lot of fresh vegetables and berries for the winter. We eat a lot of the abundance when there is nothing on the hills but snow.
This is a Guest Blog by Legal Expert Charles H. Knull (aka. Chuck). Chuck is the founder and owner of Knull P.C., an intellectual property boutique law firm with offices in Cooperstown, NY and New York City. He is focused on trademark and copyright dispute resolution and counseling. Contact him via www.KnullPC.com/contact.
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