Don't get me wrong. I fed cows that became hamburgers without much heartache when I was little. So I'm not naive about food. But there is something heartbreaking about thinning seedlings, like these ghostly carrots-in-the-making. In Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Barbara Kingsolver says plants have a "virtuous green silence." And I totally get that.

But it works. Here's the last of the potatoes, first of the new lettuces: