Tomato Farming

When I was in college I came home to the desert to take summer jobs. One summer my brother and I worked for a hydroponic farmer putting in tomato plants. Hydroponics is a style of farming that avoids the use of soil. The plants are situated in gravel or some such inert composite. Nutrient rich water would be washed through the roots of the plants several times a day. It was a way of farming that helped to avoid plant damage by disease and pests. If you've ever seen a tomato worm, you know how important it is to avoid them.

We started at the site just before sunrise every day, shoveling gravel, pushing wheelbarrows full of seedlings, tying up tiny tomato plants and other tedious and laborious jobs in the hundred-degree heat. Our supervisor on the job was an old farmer who wore overalls and a straw hat and was in the habit of sitting in the shade and pointing and shouting at his younger slaves. I'm not sure how we got the job. I must have unknowingly hurt the feelings of one of my friends who, for revenge, recommended me to farmer John.

I had worked at other summer jobs; lifeguard at a pool and lake, usher at a movie theater, supervisor for a recreation playground. But never anything as hot and difficult as hydroponic farming. That summer job became a touchstone for me. When later in life I fell into some work that I didn’t like, I could always say to myself: ‘at least it’s not hydroponic farming in hundred degree temperatures.’