Joyce Bupp

Plant. Water. Repeat. That’s been my mantra — and lots of other people’s as well — since the first young plant seedlings went into the ground around here weeks ago.

Finding a snapping turtle far from water can happen during nesting season. Columnist Joyce Bupp is startled by a snappy visitor in her garden.

So many of us wrestle with the same daily dilemma. Day after day after day. What do I fix for lunch... or for supper?

Columnist Joyce Bupp welcomes summer to the farm with thorny roses, ripening black raspberries that the birds snitch and putting up the storm windows on the old triple-track windows.

Now where was it? I’d looked at the usual likely spots, and it was nowhere to be found.

The year was 1776.

The fragrance wafting from a corner of the kitchen is slightly-sweet and slightly-spicy. It’s not a scent you’d find at a cosmetic-counter selection of colognes or perfumes.

You would think they owned the place. I had just stepped around the edge of our garage to drag out the totes for our weekly trash pickup when I stopped dead in my tracks at the surprise visitors.

Pot roast in a cast-iron Dutch oven, green beans and mashed potato.

The garden, weeds and crops kick into high gear and go crazy as soon as columnist Joyce Bupp and The Farmer leave for a little well-earned vacation.