>>knowing John to be the good organic horticulturist he is,<<

Looks like a Good Crop this Year

As a little kid out in Nebraska, maybe when I was in third grade, they 
called me "Johnny Farmer" because I liked to plant seeds. In September 
we would go to the state fair on the last day. I’d make friends with the 
farm kids and we’d help their fathers as they took down the crop 
exhibits. If I asked, they’d give me a few if the long yellow ears of 
seed corn. All winter long I had half-a-bushel of the ears of corn 
rolling around under my bed. About January, I'd get my scissors and cut 
a 3" strip off the edge of the blotter on my mom's desk. (Don't tell her 
I did that!) Then I’d reach under my bed and sweep up several kernels of 
corn, and fold them up in the strip of blotter; folding one inch up all 
along the bottom, one-third over from the left, one-third over from the 
right. If I asked my older sister real nice she would get me some 
wax-paper from the kitchen and I’d wrap that around the blotter making a 
neat little packet, open at the top, just the size of my shirt pocket 
and sort of water-proof. I’d sprinkle just a little water in the top of 
the packet every morning, right after I brushed my teeth. After a week 
or so I'd get a nice little crop of green corn sprouting up out of my 
pocket. It looked real nice, growing up to the collar of the red flannel 
shirt I got for Christmas.

Johnny Farmer
1957, Lancaster Co., Nebraska

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