Chapter 16: Pest Control (1)
TL: Hanguk
The land of America is vast and fertile, making it ideal for farming, but if I had to point out just one drawback, it would be that there are a lot of bugs. So you end up seeing bugs often and getting used to them, but that is a different matter from actually liking them.
Isn't Chloe's expression showing that perfectly right now?
“Please... now that I think about it, spraying pesticide might not be such a bad idea. If we spray a moderate amount, wouldn’t it be okay?”
“Of course it could work. You don’t absolutely have to get eco-friendly certification, and the trees will take a bit of damage, but it is the fastest way to see results.”
At my answer, which accepted it far too easily, Chloe hesitated instead.
“Huh? R, really? Then should we do that?”
“There’s no reason we can’t.”
At that point, Armando suddenly butted in.
“But if it were your farm, would you control pests with pesticides?”
“No.”
When I shook my head firmly, Chloe opened her eyes wide and asked,
“Why? You said it would be fine if I did that.”
“Because you want to do it.”
“Then why wouldn’t you do it?”
“I told you. The trees get damaged.”
“......”
In Chloe’s eyes, the question ‘Why does that matter?’ was vividly written. How could her thoughts show so clearly on her face?
“To a farmer, every single tree is like my own child. It’s the same for me. All the grapevines on my farm are like my children. You know that each tree is in a different condition, right?”
At my calm words, Chloe’s gaze wavered.
“No...”
“Even grapevines on the same farm are not all the same. Some trees can’t absorb nutrients and water very well, some trees are weak and wilt easily. Some trees don’t have plump flesh. Even when you grow them in the same place, with the same farming methods, in the same way, it’s strange how every tree is different. That’s why you have to take care of each one a little differently. For some trees, you use various methods so they can absorb fertilizer better, and for others, you carefully prune them and manage them from the time the fruit is very small. It’s probably the same for the cherry trees on your farm too, right? But you wouldn’t know that, would you?”
Suddenly, Chloe’s face turned bright red. The fact that she was the daughter of a farm owner, talking about inheriting a cherry farm, yet not knowing something like this, made her feel embarrassed.
“Yeah...”
“If something grows well no matter what you give it, does that mean you can feed anything to your own child too? Even if they eat snacks or french fries served at school lunches, nothing will go wrong right away. But that’s not normal food. I acknowledge that. But you’re different from me. That’s why I respect your choice.”
While Chloe, her face flushed, was unable to speak, Armando tossed out another blunt question.
“But you don’t even have kids, so how do you know all that so well?”
That guy sometimes has a sharp edge in the most unnecessary places.
“...... Just a guess...? My mom and dad raised me that way.”
“But in Korea, are snacks or french fries not considered normal food?”
“Absolutely not... In Korea, they would never give something like that as a meal. We don’t call that food, we call it snacks.”
Anyway, after organizing her thoughts for a moment, Chloe looked straight into my eyes and said,
“I’ll do it. That bug thing...”
“It might be pretty gross. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
When I asked with a grin, Chloe nodded firmly.
“If it’s something I have to do as a farm owner, I can do it too.”
“Wow... you’ve got some serious ambition, don’t you?”
“Listen carefully. This isn’t because I want to take over the farm. It’s because it’s my dad’s farm.”
She spoke as if it was absolutely not about money, but when I saw Chloe’s wavering eyes, I felt like it probably was not one hundred percent true. Well, I didn’t make it obvious.
“Alright. Since the three of us are here, let’s each take on one task.”
Jacob and Armando’s faces stiffened.
“Do I have to touch bugs too?”
“Please...”
“If things go well, won’t Chloe treat us big?”
The two men turned to look at Chloe at the same time. She looked flustered for a moment, then lifted her chin.
“Armando, if you help me, I’ll set up a chance for you to have a meal with Christina.”
The moment Chloe finished speaking, Armando, a Mexican man who had never even dated before, started nodding his head like a child enchanted by candy.
“Of course I’ll help.”
“And Jacob, if you help me, I’ll tell Teacher Miller that you actively helped deal with the danger that happened on our farm and got us through the crisis.”
I was wondering what that was supposed to mean, but Jacob smiled broadly as if he had never disliked bugs in the first place.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.”
That’s something to be thankful for?
When I stared blankly at Chloe, she shrugged her shoulders and said,
“Jacob wants to go to a good school. If Teacher Miller writes about him positively, it’ll help with admissions.”
At that, I turned to Jacob and said with a newfound realization,
“So that’s why you always carry that notebook around and write so diligently?”
“Haha... I’m going to become a good farmer and help my dad. And of course, I’ll marry a pretty woman too.”
“I wasn’t really curious about the part after that... Anyway, got it. I’ll give each of you one task. Armando, go down to downtown and look for grower supply stores. When you get there, they’ll handle adult ladybug packs or lacewing egg packs in glass bottles or capsule form.”
“... This really feels like buying game items.”
“That’s right. In farming, bugs are practically items too. They probably won’t have a large stock, so buy everything they have.”
“What about the money?”
Instead of answering, I looked at Chloe, and she immediately pulled a card out of her wallet and handed it to Armando.
“If you pay for anything else, I’ll kill you.”
“One ice cream should be okay, right?”
“... That much is okay.”
“Good.”
Then I looked at Jacob.
“You go downtown too and find the Extension Service, an agricultural education and support organization jointly operated by the USDA and state governments. Tell them the situation and request 500 ladybugs and 500 lacewing eggs. It’ll probably take about three days.”
“Uh, got it.”
Next, lastly, I looked at Chloe.
“Contact the California Cherry Association and ask if they can support us with ladybugs and lacewings. They might tell you to pick them up from the Extension office, but either way, that won’t be enough, so ask the Cherry Association for additional support as well.”
“Okay.”
Since it wasn’t particularly difficult, Chloe nodded with a bright smile. But I added the rest of what I had to say with a gentle grin.
“And...”
“Huh?”
“It’d be a shame to end things with just a phone call. Let’s go out and catch some bugs now. Catching them with bare hands would be inconvenient in many ways, so change into something comfortable and come out. You should wear thin gloves. Thick gloves might kill the bugs. And they’re harder to catch.”
Startled, Chloe shouted,
“You said we’re requesting bugs!”
“I told you. Even at the fastest, it’ll take about three days. Only adult ladybug packs are usable right away, and the rest take time to properly show their effects. The best thing is to catch adults and release them immediately.”
“What about you?”
“Me?”
I let out a small laugh and said,
“I need to go check on the vineyard. I can’t keep helping forever, can I?”
“You’re awful!”
“Hey! The greatest value here is information. If it weren’t for me, would you even be able to get this kind of information?”
“......”
“If you don’t know what the bugs look like, just ask the farm workers. And they’ll know better than I do where to catch them, so catch as many as you can.”
“How many is as many?”
“Hmm~ You’ll probably have to catch them all week.”
Feeling a bit sorry for Chloe, whose face looked like she was about to cry, I patted her on the shoulder.
“It’s okay. You’ll get used to it as you do it.”
Leaving behind Chloe, whose eyes were full of confusion,
“Let’s go. I’ll give you a ride.”
I led the two friends to the car.
“So we don’t really have anything to do today, huh?”
“Looks like it.”
At that moment,
“No! You two have to help me catch bugs.”
For a moment, the two of them looked at me with pitiful eyes, but I shook my head with an apologetic expression.
“Tsk tsk tsk... let’s go!”
And so, I headed downtown with my two friends whose shoulders were slumped. I dropped Armando off in front of a grower supply store and let Jacob out in front of the Extension office, when Jacob spoke with an anxious expression.
“What if I go in and get lost?”
“... Okay, let’s go in together.”
Since it wasn’t physical labor, I felt uneasy, so I had no choice but to go into the office with him. In the spacious garden around us, various crops were planted experimentally, and several staff members were diligently tending to the plants.
As we entered the lobby, a middle-aged female staff member at the information desk greeted us with a smile.
“Hello, this is the Extension Service. What kind of help do you young gentlemen need?”
When I stepped forward, the staff member looked back and forth between Jacob and me with interest. I couldn’t tell if it was because of Jacob’s massive build or because she found it unusual for students to visit this place.
“Hello. We came to urgently request natural enemies due to a cherry aphid outbreak at a cherry farm. We need 500 seven-spotted ladybugs and 500 lacewing eggs.”
“Oh, is that so? Could you wait just a moment?”
As the middle-aged woman went inside, a deep, composed voice came from behind us.
“You’re requesting ladybugs and lacewings because of cherry aphids?”
When Jacob and I turned around, a man who looked to be in his late thirties to early forties was standing there in a suit. It was an outfit that did not fit this Extension Service center at all.
“Yes... and you are?”
The man looked at me with great interest and walked over.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Pierce Morgan.”
“I’m Brian Choi.”
Before I knew it, I was shaking hands with him.
“Do you run a cherry farm? Or are you a worker?”
“My friend is the daughter of a cherry farm owner. I’m the son of a vineyard owner. And he’s the son of a rice farm owner.”
“Oh? So you’re young talents who will lead American agriculture?”
He was quite tall, around 190 centimeters, and after bending slightly at the waist to look me in the eye, he asked,
“But how did you know that ladybugs and lacewings are natural enemies of cherry aphids?”
Before I could answer, Jacob pointed at me.
“He knew everything from the start. So he stopped us from trying to control them with pesticides and said we should get rid of them using natural enemies.”
"Oh ho, I see."
"But what do you do? You're wearing a suit here?"
When I asked, he broke into a broad grin.
“I’m from the USDA. I go around local offices and work on encouraging farm owners to adopt sustainable farming methods and new technologies.”
“Ah-”
Good heavens, was Jacob a benefactor? If I had just dropped him off and left, I would never have met this man. My eyes lit up.
“Do you happen to have an ID badge?”
“Hahaha, of course.”
After seeing the ID he showed me, I smiled gently and said,
“We’re making vinegar from grapes, and it should be finished in about two months. Would it be okay if we sent you a bottle?”
“Vinegar, not wine?”
“Yes. Last year’s harvest wasn’t great, so we made vinegar instead of wine.”
“Oh, really? I’m looking forward to it. Sounds good. Send it to the UC Davis Cooperative Extension. It’d be nice to taste it together with the staff.”
“I’ll definitely send it! Please look forward to it.”
At that moment, the middle-aged woman who had gone inside came back out, scribbled something quickly on a document, and tore it off neatly.
“Come pick it up in three days.”
“Thank you.”
As I walked out grinning from ear to ear, Jacob asked as he got into the car,
“But why did you say you’d give that guy vinegar?”
“You heard him earlier, right? He said his job is to go around local offices and encourage farm owners to adopt sustainable farming methods and new technologies.”
“Yeah.”
“That guy is a Regional Agricultural Program Director with the USDA. In short, he’s someone with enormous power in the California agricultural world! He has the authority to make sure the USDA secures information first when farms go up for auction, to preselect high-quality farms or land with potential and provide related information, and he also holds strong influence over regional festivals and competitions like table grape events...”
Not fully understanding everything I said, Jacob blinked and asked,
“So basically, it’s good if we make a good impression on him, right?”
“...... Yes. That’s right.”
Sometimes, I find that kind of simplicity enviable.