City folks this time of year can savor the special joy and sense of accomplishment that comes from farming. Millions of Americans are havesting tomatoes, green beans and many other crops out of backyard gardens, canister gardens on a deck or even little pots of herbs in a window sill.
The produce is the freshest possible, so the taste and flavor are incredible. Even better, is the satisfaction of knowing that you planted it, watered it, weeded it, fertilized it and made it grow. You can take rightful pride in what you did.
If you added up all the man hours, the cost of the seeds and fertilizer and the water, maybe you didn't save much over buying the same stuff at the supermarket or farmer's market. But the personal achievement of starting something and seeing it through to completion is worth a lot.
In microcosm, you have experienced what keeps people farming and ranching. Each year brings new life, as you see baby animals born and seeds sprout through the topsoil. The greater the effort you make to nurture them and see them through to maturity, the greater the sense of pride and satisfaction.
Even if the market is bad, and the return on your work isn't all you'd hope it would be, nobody can take the satisfaction away. Even a bad storm, drought or other natural disaster doesn't dissuade you trying again next year.
That's the addiction of the agrarian lifestyle.
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