A Story For Easter

by Tiddler

Claudine’s troubles seemed to be a lot worse than usual this year. She took a look at the mass of nettles that had spread along the far side of her smallholding, they were now starting to grow all along the edges of her field. Last year, she had failed to cut them back and now, they were really getting out of control. Her father would have scolded her for her neglectfulness, but she had been so tired last year, seeming to have gone from one problem to another. She turned away from the mass of weeds and walked into one of her three polytunnels. Sam, her father, had the polytunnels put there, so that they could grow tomatoes in them. They had been the salvation for them, and had brought in some real income, so that they could take things a little easier. Sam had died, two years ago, though, and now Claudine was left to look after the smallholding, with her two children, her husband having taken up with another woman just after the youngest was born. She looked at the tomatoes and could see that the aphids, which she had spotted a few days ago, had multiplied to a worrying degree. Her crop of tomatoes would not be salvageable soon, if she did not apply some insecticide. Claudine did not want to do this, though, as she belonged to an organic market gardeners association and they would not take her crop if she had treated the plants with anything like that. She had heard that it was not a problem that was confined to her plot of land, though, and that lots of nearby growers had a problem with aphids. Claudine had got in touch with the office of the local organic growers association and they said that they would send someone round to look at her plants and, maybe, give her some advice about what could be done. In the meantime, she could spray them with some soapy water, but nothing else. It was Easter, that weekend, and she took the kids to the chapel, as she usually did at Easter. Marcie was eight years old, and George was thirteen. George was just getting to the age when he could be a real help with the plants and in the house. They listened to the minister, saying about how Jesus had died to save mankind and Claudine wondered, cynically, how come Jesus would not save her crops and give her a break. She prayed for Marcie and George, that they would grow up to be good people, and that god would give her a good harvest of tomatoes from her plants. The next Tuesday was pretty warm and Claudine was worried that the plants may get mould on them, if they were left unventilated, as the polytunnels could get really humid inside and if there was no breeze, to shift the air, inside, then the mould could get a hold. So, she opened the flaps at each end of each tunnel and a lovely cool breeze started to waft through each of them. She needed to remember to close the openings, before she went to bed, though. The following day, she went out into the field, where her polytunnels stood. She was up early and the birds were singing in the trees around, it was such a beautiful place to live. It was with a sinking feeling, in her stomach, that she realised that she may not be able to live there much longer if she did not get a good crop that year. She had been hoping to pay off the final part of the loan, which her father had taken out when he had decided to start using the field to grow tomatoes, instead of just letting it out to a couple of the local people, to graze their horses. She undid the flap at the front of the first poly tunnel and switched on the tap which was just inside. She watched the water, starting to replenish the troughs, where the plant roots could drink it from. She started to walk down the path, between the plants, and, as she brushed against one of them, a few insects took off from it. They were too big for aphids and, when they landed, she saw that they were ladybirds. Claudine looked at one of the other plants and saw more ladybirds, as she walked along, a bit further, she saw that nearly every plant had them on it, they seemed to be eating the aphids! It was like a plague of ladybirds, but it was something that she was glad to see. She went to the next poly tunnel and looked at the plants, they had the ladybirds on them, too, as did the plants in the third tunnel. The ladybirds must have got into the tunnels when she had opened the flaps, the previous day, to let the breeze through. Claudine went to tell the kids about the ladybirds and they were overjoyed, too, that they were in amongst the plants. George and Marcie went to look at the colourful bugs and were amazed at how many there were. Marcie particularly loved to look at the patterns on their backs. Later that day, the man from the organic food office came around. He had expected that he would have to tell Claudine that she may have to try to make a claim on her insurance, for the lost crop. It was something that he had had to tell quite a few members of the cooperative, over the last couple of weeks. When she told him what had happened, though, and showed him the ladybirds, he was delighted. "Most of the smallholders around here haven’t seen a ladybird for a few years," he said. "People have taken most of the weeds away. Nettles seem to be where they breed and lay their eggs. The fact that you still have all these nettles around has probably saved your crop." He was delighted and so was Claudine, that an organic solution to her problem seemed to have materialised. That year, her crop made bumper prices, due to the lack of local organic tomatoes, unfortunately, her neighbours had not been so lucky, but she was able to repay the last part of the loan and put some extra money to one side, to invest in the smallholding and put towards a new truck. The man from the organic food office advised the other farmers in the scheme that they could use some nettles around their places and Claudine was pleased to give them some of hers, as she had more than enough of them, and they would increase the following year, anyway. From now on, Claudine would not need to be ashamed of the weeds all around her field, she could explain that they were a very necessary part of her set up. One of the neighbouring farmers, who came around to get some nettles from Claudine was Josh Winters, whom she had seen around, but never really spoken to. They got to chatting and found that they had a similar outlook to life, and started dating, the following year they were married and united their two properties, the kids got on great with Josh and he liked them, too. The family prospered from then onwards and their tomato business went from strength to strength. When Claudine looked back, she saw that the plague of aphids had been the beginning of her salvation, in a strange sort of way.