Why not try?

When we dug the yellow potatoes for this week's box, Bill and I developed a steady rhythm. He dug deep under the plant with a 4-prong garden fork as I grasped the plant stem of the plant. When it loosened, I gently shook clumps of dirt from buried roots to reveal hidden potatoes, picked them, and tossed the plant into the row behind us. It was the end of the day, and both of us were starting to drag. We felt tired, sweaty, and ready for this job to be done. My thoughts were on the supper I hadn't yet started while Bill wondered how many more feet he needed to dig.

Then as we drew close to the end of the 100 foot bed, Aidan joined us. He noticed many stems still had tiny buds of undeveloped potatoes. We had seen them, lamented the unrealized potential, but ignored them.

Soon Aidan wandered away (we thought), and we continued our harvest. Pretty quickly though, we realized he had gone back to the beginning of the row and was re-planting the discarded plants. When I questioned him, he said, "Why not try?"

Seeing his enthusiasm and catching some ourselves, we, too, began re-planting. It made more work and supper was later than my grumbling stomach wanted, but now we have an experiment happening in the potato patch - one that all three of us are engaged in.

Yeah . . . why not try?