NPR 07-29:Stress Yields a Sweeter Life丰收的喜悦滋润着我的心田

Pennsylvania farmer Tim Stark¹ believes a reasonable amount of stress brings out his best qualities.

From NPR News, this is Weekend Edition. I'm Liane Hansen.

I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I Believe.

Today for our series This I Believe. We have an essay for high summer, or more specifically for tomato season. The essayist is Tim Stark, a farmer who's been called the tomato guru to the stars, star chefs that is. Here is our series curator independent producer Jay Allison.

Tim Stark was raised on his grandfather's tomatoes. As Stark says slurping² down the seeds sacks, they must have taken root, because Stark left a New York City consulting career to grow vegetables. And they have become renowned³. You could say Tim Stark came to his belief through his tomatoes. Here he is recorded in the cab of his truck at the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan with his essay for This I believe.

I believe that an atmosphere of stress and chaos⁴, within reason, brings out my best qualities. And I believe my heirloom tomatoes feel the same.

My farm started out as a garden, a weekend respite⁵ from New York City where I worked as a management consultant⁶. In that job, the stress often went unrewarded. Cranking out three dimensional pie charts backed by reams of prose, I could show the client how to fix what went wrong only to have them hire another consultant to tell them the same thing.

So I grew tomatoes to relax at first. But early one spring, on the top floor of a Brooklyn brownstone, I germinated⁷ 3,000 tomato seedlings⁸ on heat mats beneath fluorescent⁹ grow lights. Before work, I would get up two hours early to fuss with my plants. Once during a meeting in Albany, I convinced myself I had forgotten to insert the thermometer into the heated soil. Horrific scenarios¹⁰ preyed¹¹ on my imagination, the heat mats would grow hotter, the seedlings would fry, my apartment would ignite. I left the meeting early and flew home to New York City, convinced I'd be rescuing seedlings from a burning brownstone. As it turned out, the thermometer was safely in the soil.

Any right-minded consultant would have advised against the exhausting, under-capitalized and dysfunctional venture my garden expanded into. But the work brought rewards. The back pain I got from pounding tomato stakes was nothing like the back pain that came with trying to meet consulting deadlines. And those pie charts? You couldn't bite into them like you could a rich, juicy, fresh tomato.

I don't know who suffered most early on, me or my tomatoes. The stress was tough on both of us: tomatoes ripening¹² faster than I could pick them, tomatoes exploding beneath the ruthless sun. It would be midnight till I got the truck loaded to come here, and then at 4 in the morning, driving in, the truck would run out of gas.

What I brought to this market was a ragtag lot: Black Krim, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Zapotec Pleated, Extra Eros Zlatolaska. They were zippered¹³, cracked and hopelessly mottled.

But those tomatoes developed a following. Customers had grown suspicious of the fire-engine red variety: over-irrigated, sprayed at the first sign of disease, pumped up with fertilizer, pampered¹⁴ like a bottle-fed baby. My tomatoes had to compensate¹⁵ and persevere¹⁶, dig for their minerals and water, find their own way. The patches of black, the concentric scars, the multiple signs of tomato suffering, showed strength and flavor. I couldn't help but notice how my tomatoes responded to me in ways that women and bosses never had. My tomatoes needed me, and I needed them.

For 10 years, I've made a living from tomatoes. It's not a bad life, even though I threaten to quit each year. But things have gotten better since I started out. These days, at the peak of summer, I get four hours of sleep where once I got two. I believe in managed stress. It sweetens the tomatoes. I like to think it sweetens me, too.

Tim Stark with his essay for This I believe. Stark grows tomatoes, chilis, corn, peas, beets¹⁷ and whatever he chooses on Eckerton Hill Farm, in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.

We invite you to express your beliefs for our series, visit our website npr.org/thisibelieve to find out more and to search through all the essays that have been submitted. For This I Believe, I'm Jay Allison.

Next Monday, on All Things Considered, a This I Believe essay from David Gasner on his belief in wildness.

This I Believe is independently produced by Jay Allison, Dan Gediman, John Gregory, Viki Merric, and Emily Botein.

Support for This I Believe comes from Prudential Retirement¹⁸.

1 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

2 slurping   

v.啜食( slurp的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was slurping his tea. 他正咂着嘴喝茶。
• Although the downturn has not stopped consumers slurping ice-cream, it has affected the bottom line. 尽管经济低迷没有阻止消费者吃冰淇淋，但却影响了净利润。 来自互联网

3 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

4 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

5 respite   

n.休息，中止，暂缓

参考例句：

• She was interrogated without respite for twenty-four hours.她被不间断地审问了二十四小时。
• Devaluation would only give the economy a brief respite.贬值只能让经济得到暂时的缓解。

6 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

7 germinated   

v.（使）发芽( germinate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• First, the researchers germinated the seeds. 研究人员首先让种子发芽。 来自辞典例句
• In spring they are germinated and grown for a year in beds. 春季里，他们在苗床发芽并生长一年。 来自辞典例句

8 seedlings   

n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ninety-five per cent of the new seedlings have survived. 新栽的树苗95%都已成活。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• In such wet weather we must prevent the seedlings from rotting. 这样的阴雨天要防止烂秧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

10 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

11 preyed   

v.掠食( prey的过去式和过去分词 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生

参考例句：

• Remorse preyed upon his mind. 悔恨使他内心痛苦。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He had been unwise and it preyed on his conscience. 他做得不太明智，这一直让他良心不安。 来自辞典例句

12 ripening   

v.成熟，使熟( ripen的现在分词 )；熟化；熟成

参考例句：

• The corn is blossoming [ripening]. 玉米正在开花[成熟]。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• When the summer crop is ripening, the autumn crop has to be sowed. 夏季作物成熟时，就得播种秋季作物。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 zippered   

v.拉上拉链( zipper的过去式和过去分词 )；用拉链扣上

参考例句：

• Freeze grapes and put them into a zippered plastic bag. 还可以把葡萄冷冻，然后放在有拉链的塑料袋里。 来自互联网
• Packaging is a VZB( Vinyl Zippered Bag packaging), with a color insert. 包装：有拉链的塑料袋，放一张彩卡。 来自互联网

14 pampered   

adj.饮食过量的，饮食奢侈的v.纵容，宠，娇养( pamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The lazy scum deserve worse. What if they ain't fed up and pampered? 他们吃不饱，他们的要求满足不了，这又有什么关系？ 来自飘（部分）
• She petted and pampered him and would let no one discipline him but she, herself. 她爱他，娇养他，而且除了她自己以外，她不允许任何人管教他。 来自辞典例句

15 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

16 persevere   

v.坚持，坚忍，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• They are determined to persevere in the fight.他们决心坚持战斗。
• It is strength of character enabled him to persevere.他那坚强的性格使他能够坚持不懈。

17 beets   

甜菜( beet的名词复数 )； 甜菜根； （因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而）脸红

参考例句：

• Beets are Hank's favorite vegetable. 甜菜根是汉克最爱吃的蔬菜。
• In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上，大麦，苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。

18 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。