by Wendy Machmer

Created on: May 28, 2008   Last Updated: June 10, 2008

Pest Paranoia

Filled with gusto, my husband and I jumped into gardening with the idea of becoming as self-sufficient as possible, growing everything from strawberries to peanuts. Hell-bent on winning the battle with cutworms, and other pests, we worked hard at outsmarting them. Bright green worms vied for our broccoli, but placing the stalks in salt water won that battle! The worms floated to the top. Voila! Our stalks were now ours to eat.

Canning beets one night while on the phone, I exclaimed to my caller," There are tiny holes all over my beets! What in the world has ruined my beets?!" My sympathetic caller shared my distress at yet another pest takeover. Suddenly, in a moment of clarity, I realized the pest was actually the fork I'd been using to test the beets for doneness! We laughed so hard. It was good the harvest was done so I could finally clear my head and put my pest paranoia to bed for yet another winter.

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