On a little tiny farm

That was the punch line to one of Dad's stories. He liked being the gentleman farmer lingerie salesman in at the Gulfview, the condo in Marco Island, Florida. Mom and Dad made lots of great friends during their time there. People from Michigan, Wisconsin and the East coast too.

They treated our parents like the farm experts. Little did they know that Mom and Dad learned their farm and gardening knowledge pretty much by osmosis! Mom grew tomatoes a couple times by the garage, and Bubba, our Grandpa had farmland that he cash rented. And just like me, they heard crop talk (though they went to that other school, and didn't graduate from an agricultural college as I did).

One time at a cocktail party at the Gulfview, someone served those little pickled cocktail corn ears. They're so cute, I just love 'em! Somebody said, "Dave, where does that little corn come from?" Dad said, without missing a beat, "little farms!" Of course!

My roomie Joan has developed her very own little tomatoes. I helped water them this summer as she grew 'em in a pot out back. She called them cherry tomatoes, but I think they're more like pea tomatoes. We laugh every time she "harvests" them.