May 10, 2008 7:20 AM

Even Geeks and Nerds Love Strar-berries

The kids and I went Mother's Day shopping yesterday afternoon, and this smoothed over an argument Mallory and Nicholas were having over the shades of meaning attached to the words "Geek" and "Nerd." (Nicholas believes nerds are more intellectual and less socially inept than geeks. I can't remember Mallory's half of the discussion but Bill Gates was the near constant reference point for both sides of the question.) I think "Geek" has lost a lot of its circus-freak stigma in the last fifteen years; I believe there may be even beautiful and graceful female tech geeks now.

Jeff Hammond reported to me, with a great deal of excitement, that so far the crop set looks stunning. Even our three year old antique apple trees will be producing about a bushel a piece this year. The senshus have big fat little green apples now and the Delicious apples are so full we may have to do some thinning. Personally, I'm very excited about the taste of the strawberries and their productivity up here in Oak Glen. If we could get about 3-4 acres in Strawberries, and have them arrive in May, and stick around until the blackberries start coming in--we would have a true May-November harvesting cycle here. We dropped by a strawberry stand in Riverside the other day, and it was clear that the strawberries they were selling were not actually grown there on site. They were nice and red, very thick, but they had no flavor. These strawberries, on the other hand, create a flavor-wallop that is much closer to strawberry jam.

Here is a geek-confession on my part. I suffer from a version of procrastination that is fueled by tech-obsession. Perhaps someone else out there suffers a similar condition. I don't know if it has a name, so I'll describe the symptoms: Theoretically, a novel could be scratched onto a cave wall using a charcoal-blackened stick from the fire, but in the era of fluid-gel pens and ample paper, you really have no excuse. I was the among the first "technology heat-seekers," however, to start using word processors--even before they came to reside on personal computers. Olivetti made an electronic typewriter that let you correct the line you were working on, before it was committed to paper. I put off writing short stories until that was out of the crate. I put off writing, again, when I heard a new PC based word processor was on the horizon, then again when the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) was soon to be made available on CD ROM. I put off making a film until the brand new "DV" video technology was out, and then I put it off again until I could test the "film-like" glow of the new HD technology.

Here's a secret for you. Not many people vote in these "blogger choice awards." Sixty votes will get you into the top ten. If this blog reached the top ten, it might reduce our advertising budget and maybe reduce the price of u-pick apples. (Or it might actually increase them.) Either way, if you like the farm journal even a little bit, do the logical thing: cast your vote for it as the "Best Blog of All Time." Vote Today! Cindy Swanson, are you out there?

I suppose there might be a wood-worker out there who is putting off that 18th century cherry-wood writing desk until a new joinery machine comes out, or a would-be Cajun cook putting off a new creation until a new set of cast iron skillets comes in, or even a surfer putting off the ultimate wave until (forget it; I don't know surf technology well enough to theorize...) I remember walking through CompUSA one night, and coming to the conclusion, "heah, I've got everything I need not only to publish a novel but make a full length feature movie!"

Well the tools are fun, to be certain, but the work itself is the thing, young man.

Get to work everyone. It's good for the soul!

More of the Farm Journal -- May 9 (Evening), 2008