Gardeners have short memories it seems. They just don't get it. Each year they forget the yield per plant and what a couple extra plants can do to create an oversupply. As we near the end of the gardening season, baskets are full. Sharing has risen to a level of near aggregation and still the produce keeps coming.
Roadside stands, farmers' markets and the super gardener down the road compete in overkill.
At this point, cooks have exhausted their many variations on the tomato, their 500 ways to use zucchini as well as their many clever ways to get kids to eat green peppers. Becoming a family of vegetarians was an interesting challenge and good defense at the advent of the season. But at this point, with the last tomatoes lingering on the vine, the final crop of sweet corn ready to harvest and one more basket of zucchini on the picnic table, there's a longing for a thick slab of beef, a juicy pork chop or a roasted chicken. There is no doubt about it. The natives are becoming restless at the dinner table.