Bacteria

is everywhere. On the farm, we use bacteria to build compost and hope that symbiotic probiotics attach themselves to our plants roots. In our daily lives, we eat yogurt with live cultures and drink raw kombucha to stave off infection and fungi. These are all the good, healthy bacteria that can do wonderful and restorative things. Don't they sound lovely?

Then there's the nasty bacteria with which I have found myself intimately acquainted since my return. Let's meet the players, shall we? In the right corner, we have streptococcus: annihilator of WWOOFer immune systems, air traveler and a bacterium likely found on every dish, glass and silverware in the shared kitchen. In the left corner, we have Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (say it ten times fast!) or Xcc: cause of Black rot in Crucifers (cabbage family) and ruthless conquerer of Grace Garden at Hale Akua Garden Farms. As a result of this ignoble foe, all of Grace Garden is scheduled to be ruthlessly ripped up. 40 tons of compost is to be trucked in and the land will lay fallow for at least a year with cover-crops such as clover, sun-hemp and sorghum allowed to take root and restore the soil--to defeat the wretched Xanthomanas which now lives there.

What this means for me is that I will not have a chance to love my section of Grace Garden back to life. That I will have to say goodbye to the okra, rainbow chard and lima beans to which I had become so attached. I have already exterminated my garden of broccoli which was upsetting (and let me tell you: nothing smells better than rotten members of the cabbage family) and will do the same to the fennel today.

Now for the glass-half-full analysis: I get to see the realities of organic problem solving. Can you imagine how devastating this news would be to a non-trust-fund-funded, family operation. Here, we are lucky enough to have Lori Grace behind us--she is willing to spend thousands on compost and a tractor. We get to start over and to do the best thing for the health of the garden. It's going to be awesome.

On the streptococcus front... I fear I have succumbed.