Down in the dirt, water soaks deep. Roots drink it in, and a long-legged spider stilt-walks over the streams.
                  from Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt
                                        written by Kate Messner
                            illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
                                            Chronicle Books, 2015

    Let’s not talk about the hydrangea fiasco from a couple of years ago. The guys who came over from the garden store to plant the five hardy baby bushes did not say not to prune them. So… well, I have two left. I’m sure they’re hardier than the three wimps who did not survive my clippers.
    My son-in-law teaches science, especially botany, in a high school in their town. For several years, he ran the school’s greenhouse and gave his students hands-on experience. 
    He told me he had extra Joe Pye weeds and asked if I wanted some. I told him I’d get back to him. Well, after I looked them up, I quickly knew they’d be perfect. I could even out the lopsided bed that runs the length of our house.
    Joe Pye weeds are tall, purple perennials that are “easy-to-grow.” We’ll have to see about that, but pollinators love them, so I’m willing to try. 
    Last time we visited my daughter, son-in-law, and the grandkids, I brought home six little baby plants, still in their nursery dirt. My instructions were to nurture them till they grew to about 12 inches. Then they’d be ready to transplant. This past Wednesday, I planted them in the ground near Wilson, our cat who died of kidney failure at the beginning of summer 2022. 
    And I couldn’t help wondering why they were called Joe Pye weeds. Who was he, and why did he get a plant named after him?
    For a long time, a couple of hundred years, the real Joe Pye was a man of legend. His backstory was vague. It took until The Great Lakes Botanist, 2017 edition, when Richard B. Pearce, noted botanist, and James S. Pringle of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton, Ontario, reported just who Joe Pye really was.
    After combing through confusing accounts in a vast number of historical records, they presented the man behind the myth.
    Joseph Shauquethqueat, a Mohican leader, sometimes used the English name, Joe Pye. He lived from 1722 to around 1809 and spent much of his time in the Stockbridge, Massachusetts area. 
    Even though the literature of the day promoted Joe Pye weed as a remedy for typhus, Shauquethqueat was a public servant, not a medical man. There’s no known reliable evidence that he used the plant for anything medical.
    In Daniel Moerman’s Native American Medicinal Plants: An Ethnobotanical Dictionary (Timber Press, 2009), Moerman lists lots and lots of uses for lots and lots of native plants, but does not mention Shauquethqueat, Joe Pye, or even the Mohicans. And no mention of typhus.
    So there’s plenty of room for more research. We’re left knowing the man, but not his connection with the plant. 
    Before the discovery of chemistry to manufacture them, drugs and medicines all came from natural sources. Shamans and healers were well-versed in using plants, animals, and fungi for cures and remedies. Today, it is the physicians and pharmacists who work with drug manufacturers to isolate ingredients from natural sources. 
    From a paper written for the Institute for Integrative Toxicology at Michigan State University, “synthetic chemical ingredients are made in laboratories or industrial settings. The goal is to create a specific molecule in a controlled, scalable, and consistent way.” Natural ingredients come straight from plants, animals, or minerals. Physical extraction, simple processing, or natural fermentation are used to release ingredients needed for the drug. 
    And while synthetic production allows for greater purity, and natural sources may carry more variability, our bodies can’t tell the difference. We react to the structure, not the source.
    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still employs chemists, clinical analysts, microbiologists, pharmaceutical scientists, pharmacologists, and toxicologists to do the important work of determining the safety and effectiveness of medicines.
    And it is the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), one of six main centers for the FDA, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), that specifically does this work. The agency regulates over-the-counter and prescription drugs, including generics, and manages more than just medicine. Fluoride toothpaste, antiperspirants, dandruff shampoos, and sunscreens are all considered drugs and all fall under the jurisdiction of the CBER. 
    Under “doge,” CBER staff has decreased from 5,785 on September 30, 2024, to 1,373 now. (FDA.gov). 
    According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at the beginning of the 21st century, only 11% of the 252 drugs considered as basic and essential by the World Health Organization (WHO) were exclusively of flowering plant origin. 
    Discovery continues. 
    Crunching up petals, berries, stems, and leaves might sound natural, but you really have to know what you’re doing. 
    So far, I still trust Walgreens. 
    My Joe Pye weeds are still very small. But, I read in the care instructions that I found online, they might bloom in their first season. I hope so, but I marked each spot so I know where to look for them next spring, just in case. 

I just started reading How to Tell a True Story by Tricia Springstubb (Margaret Ferguson Books/Holiday House, 2025). It’s a little bit mystery, a little bit thriller, and if I know Tricia, it’s wrapped up in a whole lot of heart. Tell you more next time! 
                              Be curious! (and tend your garden)

​Emily loved to make lists. She made lists of things she didn’t like. She made lists of things she loved. And sometimes, she made lists of worries.
                                   from Baby Baby blah blah blah!
                                       written by Jonathan Shipton
                                  illustrated by Francesca Chessa
                                                 Holiday House, 2009

    I’m a list-maker. A list helps me assign priorities to my chores and errands. It helps me remember items I buy only once in a while, like toothpaste and teabags, when I add them to my grocery list. I don’t usually keep a list of the books I read. I like to just read them. 
    This past Saturday, I went to the “No Kings March” with a young friend of mine. I was feeling more anxious and emotional as the chants were chanted all around me, and I tried to read all the signs people brought and feel their angst (and my own). Their handmade ones and the printed ones, too. And the t-shirts, and the costumes. 
    Empath that she is, my friend asked if something was wrong.
    “So much is wrong. So much needs to be fixed. 
    “Where does a person start? How do you even know what to do?” I asked her. “I’m overwhelmed.”
    “You need a list.” 
    I thought that was exactly the right answer. It would help me identify and clarify what was bothering me, but I still felt overwhelmed.
    “You don’t have to do everything on the list. Just pick one thing. What would happen if everybody did that? or even a lot of people? or even if some or a few did?”
    I could have had that conversation with myself. I do have a lively internal monologue, after all. 
    But to satisfy my curiosity (and procrastinate a little), I needed to look up overwhelm before I could get to the list. It’s an old word. First used in the mid-14th century, overwhelm is derived from the Middle English whelmen, meaning “to cover.” By 1550, it expressed the sense of being completely covered, like a flood. Adding over to whelm implies “to turn upside down” or submerge.  
    Modern synonyms include the verb forms of swamp, saturate, glut, and overload. I’m sure you can think of others. This is where I find myself. 
    It’s time for the list.
    What’s wrong? Here’s my answer in (for obvious reasons) no particular order.
The existential and looming threat of a Climate Catastrophe 
Threatening to defund or actually pulling money and staff from 
    Medicare
    Medicaid
    Social Security
    Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
    United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
    Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
    National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting System
       (PBS)
    Medical research
    Environmental research
    Affordable Care Act
    National Park Service
    Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
    National Institutes of Health (NIH) and much of their ongoing and vital
       research
Dismantling the Department of Education    
Cryptocurrency
RFK, Jr.
Defying Judges
Eliminating the promotion of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity in all
       government agencies
Rolling back progress on slowing our climate crisis
Stopping the SAVE Act to protect voting rights. Here's info about the
       act.
Stopping the Budget Bill. Here's a link to the Congressional Budget
       Office’s analysis of the Bill.
Where is governmental oversight? Oh, I remember. The people doing
       those jobs have been fired. Right.
Retracting LGBTQIA+ rights
Retracting women’s rights, especially to healthcare
Refusing to put guardrails or boundaries on Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Gun violence 
Russia and Ukraine
Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran and Israel
Nuclear weapons
Book bans
Lies
   
    And I have another list, too, for the State of Ohio.
Gerrymandering
Defunding public education
Promoting School Vouchers
Book bans
Fracking is still a problem
Womens rights
Lies

    It’s a long list. My fingers could hardly keep up with my brain, and I know I left out a LOT. I am in turn, angry, terrified, and grief-stricken.
    Then I remembered a quote and had to stop writing to look it up. It’s from Angela Davis and used by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson in her book about dealing with Climate Change, What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures (One World, 2024). 
    “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” 
    So I’m back to saving the Earth. I have a project I have been thinking about for far too long. It’s time to reconnect with the contacts I’ve made early on and get to work. 
    I don’t have to really save the whole world, I only have to do what I can.
    I only have to act as if it were possible. All the time.

I’m almost finished reading The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday, 2023). Part mystery, part character study, Lawhon takes us back to post-Revolutionary America, where a small town in Maine revolves around Martha Ballard, a midwife, who, due to her position, is privy to many secrets. And due to her training and her journal-keeping becomes pivotal in solving a murder.
                        Be curious! (and try being a list-maker)

    “I, Nate the Great, say your tomatoes were eaten by an animal. Maybe a rabbit, or a raccoon, or a squirrel, or a deer. We will search your garden for clues.”
              from Nate the Great and the Missing Tomatoes
                                              by Andrew Sharmat
                          illustrated by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov
                Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House, 2022

    I know. It’s been June for over a week, and I accidentally called up "This Day in History"  for May 10, not June 10. 
    So, while June 9 (yesterday) was my 10th blogiversary, the tomato research was well on its way, so here goes.
    Even though today.com says the tomato debate is as old as time, it probably only dates back about 7,000 years! when wild tomatoes that thrived in ancient Peru were domesticated. The Incas had cultivated and were cooking tomato dishes by the 1400s. 
    Soon after, the conquistadors discovered tomatoes’ yummy versatility. They brought tomatoes back to Europe, and by the mid 1500s, tomatoes were used in recipes from England and Spain to France and Italy. When the British and others came to America to colonize the land, they brought tomatoes back to the “New World.” By the mid 1800s, through that circuitous route, the tomato was accepted into American cuisine.
    On the national scene, James A. Garfield was elected president in 1880 on a promise, among others, to reform the Civil Service. He was assassinated in 1881, and Chester A. Arthur, after serving only six months as Vice President, rose to the presidency. He inherited daunting tasks, notably Civil Service reform, which had only just begun. 
    But he is best remembered for his tariff policy.
    The Tariff of 1883, which Arthur supported, tried to walk the fine line between reducing the rates established by earlier legislation and protecting key industries. Yes, it’s complicated.
    The 1880s saw the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Tariffs were tools of economic policy that raised significant revenue in the time before Income Tax was collected. It also influenced domestic industries and international trade relations. 
    The North wanted protective tariffs to favor American industries over imported goods, while the South, still dependent on agriculture and exports, opposed those same tariffs on imported goods. The debate over tariffs was not just about economics; it was a reflection of the competing interests of different regions and their visions for America's future.
    Still trying to balance the needs of industrialists with those of consumers, Arthur often found himself looking for common ground between many factions of a quickly changing American society.
    In 1882, he appointed the Tariff Commission and tasked them with investigating and recommending changes to tariff law based on a systematic approach.
    So what about tomatoes? 
    The Tariff Act of 1883 required a tax to be paid on imported vegetables, but not fruit. 
    About ten years later, the Supreme Court took a case based on a suit filed by John Nix & Co. against the Collector of the Port of New York, Edward L. Hedden. Nix was looking to recover back duties paid under protest. He said tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables, and he should not have had to pay the tax (tariff).
    Definitions from several different dictionaries were entered into evidence on both sides. After deliberation, the Supreme Court decided tomatoes should be classified as vegetables, not fruits. 
    It was May 10, 1893, exactly 131 years and 11 months ago. Based on how they are used and popular perception, tomatoes should be classified under the customs regulations as a vegetable. The Court’s decision was unanimous.    
    Justice Horace Gray, writing the opinion for the Court, acknowledged that botanically, tomatoes are classified as a “fruit of the vine,” but are known as vegetables “because they were usually eaten as a main course instead of being eaten as a dessert.” 
    Precedent was set. In Robertson v. Salomon, Justice Bradley clarified the status of cucumbers, squash, peas, and beans as vegetables, too.
    The state of New Jersey recalled Nix when the Legislature claimed the tomato as the official state vegetable.
    Henry J. Heinz bottled and began selling his Heinz Tomato Ketchup in 1870. By 1876, it was widely available, and not long after that, his ketchup went international, to London.
    The public is still divided, though.
    In short, tomatoes can be fruits or vegetables, it depends. Botanically, since tomatoes have seeds and develop from the plant’s flower, they are fruits. But in the culinary world, ask any chef worth their salt, and they’ll tell you a tomato is savory. It’s a vegetable. 

Instead of a “book review,” I’ll leave you with a poem. I think it’s relevant to today.
         The World is too Much With Us
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. -—Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
                                   William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
                                                 first published 1807
                                  This poem is in the public domain
Be curious! (and whether fruit or vegetable, it’s tomato season. Enjoy!)

My name is Humpty Dumpty.
This was my favorite spot, high up on the wall.
I know, it's an odd place for an egg to be, but I loved being close to the birds.
Then one day, I fell. (I'm sort of famous for that part.)
Folks called it "The Great Fall," which sounds a little grand.
It was just an accident.
But it changed my life.
                                           from After the Fall: How
                                Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again
                              written and illustrated by Dan Santat
                                         Roaring Brook Press, 2017

    National Egg Day is June 3 every year. Not to be confused with World Egg Day which occurs on the second Tuesday in October every year. Why have two? I think that’s a chicken-and-egg question.
    I don’t claim to be exclusionary, but when I learned that National Egg Day fell on a Tuesday this year, and a Tuesday that was looking for a topic, well, here we are. The universe’s perfect solution to my blog post problem!
    As a matter of fact, eggs have been called the perfect food. But so has milk, and now avocados are vying for the title.
    So are eggs more perfect? Yes, according to the American Egg Board (AEB). Eggs are a complete protein; they contain all nine essential amino acids. Tofu, lentils, most beans, ancient grains like spelt, teff, quinoa, and amaranth are also high in protein, but some of the 9 essential amino acids are missing. Eating a variety of plant-based protein solves that problem.
    Eggs are also a good to “egg”cellent source of Vitamins A, B12, B2, B5, and D, selenium, calcium, potassium, iron, folate, the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, and choline. 
    According to its website, incredibleegg.org, “The American Egg Board was created by an Act of Congress in 1976 at the request of America’s egg farmers…” They continue, “For more than 40 years, … the AEB [has been] 100% farmer-funded, and those funds directly support the research, education, and promotion necessary to market eggs.”
    Their website is incredibly thorough in presenting the nutritional benefits of eggs by providing links to current and recent scientific articles. 
    The conclusion of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study also reports that “[e]ggs are highly nutritious, accessible, and affordable. …”[t]hey have a positive or neutral impact on health markers and do not pose a risk when eaten regularly as part of a balanced diet.” Eggs are also the most environmentally sustainable source of animal protein. The NIH article continues, “the balance of evidence points towards eggs being nutritious, healthy and sustainable, rather than risky.”
    Affordable, you might ask? Even at $5.00/dozen, eggs are still a good value compared with other animal proteins. Here's a comparison from the USDA published in April 2025. 
    No denying it, even though chickens can’t fly, the price of a dozen eggs has soared recently. Since February 10, 2025, over 50 million laying hens succumbed to bird flu while the demand for eggs stayed high. 
    Farmers are working hard to protect their flocks from infection. It’s a top priority. Their livelihood depends on it, and it can take six months or more for an egg farm to completely recover.
    Meanwhile, the USDA, FDA, and the CDC all tell us that with the safeguards in place, the current risk to the public is low. People rarely get bird flu, but those who do are generally people who must work closely with infected birds, and are not wearing protective equipment (masks and gloves).
    The infection can reach wild birds like gulls, ducks, geese, and even our backyard birds. As a precaution, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends cleaning bird feeders and bird baths regularly. Wear disposable gloves and wash your hands when you’re finished.
    Report sick birds or unusual bird deaths to the state or federal government by calling the USDA’s toll-free number 1-866-536-7593.  
    Funds to develop an mRNA vaccine similar to the one used against COVID-19 were awarded in July, 2024, but those funds were withdrawn at the end of May, 2025, due to RFK Jr.'s skepticism, despite evidence that the vaccines are safe and [have] saved millions of lives worldwide. (CBS News May 29, 2025) 
    Archaeological evidence shows that people have been eating eggs since the Neolithic Period (from 10,000 BCE to 2,000 BCE) when Stone Age people transitioned from hunting and gathering to agriculture and domestication. And in 1911, 2,000 years later, Joseph Coyle of British Columbia invented the modern egg carton. 
    There has been much well-deserved controversy regarding egg farms. Just the name “egg farm” instead of chicken farm emphasizes the “product” rather than the live being that “produces” it. “Cage-free” and “free-range” are designations used to describe a less restricted environment for laying hens.
    Each of us needs to decide where our own personal balance falls. For me, eggs are an important part of my diet. I choose to support a less restrictive environment for the hens by buying cage-free eggs. 
    I remember to thank the universe, Mother Nature, and the hen herself for her gifts.
    So, which did come first? Well, it depends. If you’re talking about biology, evolution plays a part. The first identifiable, separate species-specific chicken had to be inside an egg, so the egg must have come first. 
    If you're talking philosophically, though, it’s a conundrum. You're on your own.

I’m finishing up The Ungrateful Refugee mentioned last week. It’s a very readable, realistic, and important comment on society. Recommended.

And, as a follow-up to last week, Faizan Zaki, a 13-year-old from Allen, Texas, won the 100th Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling éclaircissement, a noun defined as a clearing up of something obscure. He earned more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.
FB: Sensitivity warning: Today’s post is about eggs. Vegans, read at your own discretion.