You know scbelle, I had never thought of it like that.... we really are "tending our crops". That's actually a beautiful metaphor!
This is a funny random thought but when we first went onto the crop tangent and Scandia brought up grapes all I could think of was the episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucy and Ethel were stomping on the grapes. I thought maybe we could all get together, make some wine, and wait to hear back from our respective groups!