world weather woes

We are still underwater, China is experiencing its' worst drought in 50 years, Europe is probably headed to another hot, dry summer, and so it goes.  Move along, nothing to see here.

bigger, not better

I just saw an astounding set of numbers relating to WalMart.  The company has over 2.1 million employees, sells more than 400 billion dollars of merchandise worldwide and owns more than 34 square miles of real estate.  Many countries do not approach those figures.  What that means when Wally World negoitiates with suppliers, even giants like Procter and Gamble is lower prices.  We should make WalMart the preferred supplier for all Medicare beneficiaries and get a twofer;  keep the program private, yet have a company which can beat the drug companies into submission.  NOT!  If that came to pass, WalMart would probably have more power than the US government.  But it is an interesting reflection on economies of scale.

better days

Finally, sunshine and breezes on Memorial Day.  After weeks of cool and cloudy weather with over 6 inches of rain in May, it finally feels like summer may come.  Unfortunately, the gardens are in horrific shape and I am so far behind at some point I will have to till up some beds and start over.  The early beets and carrots are being overtaken by weeds and flea beetles have decimated the cabbage and broccoli.  The perrenial crops like rhubarb and asparagus are holding their own, and the garlic looks exceptional except where the water has been standing for 10 days.  Meanwhile, I need to plant tomatoes, peppers and winter squash this weekend, as well as all the other succession plantings.  Plus the mosquitos are licking their probosci at the thought of fresh blood.  I love this business.

deadlines

Pretty soon it will be plant now or hold til next year for grain farms here in the north country.  According to Co-operative extension service, June 1 is the drop dead date for planting corn for grain.  After that it is only good for silage.  I wonder if they are taking note of the increasingly longer and milder fall weather we have been experiencing over the past 10 years?  Meanwhile, veg crops are being delayed and the best time to plant sweet corn for summer eating is fast passing.  While it is still delicious in mid Sept., far fewer people eat the stuff after labor day, and up here, the seasonal population has fled to their winter homes by then.  Of course, even if it was planted on time, the continuous rains have made a mess of the germination and cultivation is out also.  My small plantings are virtually swimming right now, so I doubt there will be any sweet corn at casa Monzeglio any time soon.

more weather woes

Heavy storms continue to be the story in the Northeast and Canada.  We got 1-2 inches of  rain last night and more is predicted through Sunday.  Even the crops that were planted are suffering from the soggy weather.  Plus, the weeds seem undeterred and are beginning to overtake their carefully planted competitors.  If I don't get some of these beds weeded there will be no beets and carrots until August.  Meanwhile, someone turned on the atmospheric furnace in New Jersey.  Looks like 90 degrees and high humidity until at least the middle of next week.  Farmers there will have to start irrigating soon. 

crashing prices

Looks like a combination of hellacious weather, high freight costs and consumer malaise are combining to hammer veg prices at the farm.  One observer in Boston said as many as 10 loads of sweet corn were being rejected for bogus "quality issues" which were more likely inventory control.  Consumers are not buying for that family cookout for weather or economic issues.  Lettuce has fallen from $16.00/case FOB to "please give me an order and we will discuss price later".  Most other veg are in similar straits.  If beer was marketed that way we would be paying a nickel per can.

tempest in a washing machine

Both Fresh Express and Taylor Farms are pushing their own proprietary washing solution which are both supposed to be superior to the industry standard, the old reliable chlorine wash.  All three systems kill e-coli and salmonella bacteria if they are applied to the entire leaf.  The systems offered by Taylor and Fresh claim they reduce the "plate count" or overall amount of bacteria more effectively than chlorine.  This is nice, but most bacteria are not harmful to humans, so it is unclear what advantage, if any these systems provide.  What they may do is precipitate an advertising war which may cast doubt on the safety of all processed salads, with each side claiming their wash is safer.  To the average consumer, this will lead to confusion and a demand that government step in and "pick the winner", as our right wingnuts protest all the time.  I'm sure this is an unintended consequence of this competition.

Produce perfection

One of the hats I wear during the day is consumer care specialist, aka the complaint dept.   I enjoy listening to consumers who have questions, comments and complaints about the spring mix, spinach and other products we sell.   The consumers tend to separate into distinct subgroups.  Of course, most people will not even think of calling the phone numbers posted on a product, so those who do are already a minority of the population.  Those who do generally are friendly and understanding of the problems involved with growing and processing a lettuce crop.  However, there is a small subgroup of amazing people out there who feel a personal affront if there salad has the least imperfection, let alone a major problem like the presence of an insect in the packaging.  For these consumers, 100% satisfaction is mandatory and anything less is cause for immediate compensation.  It does not break down along age or gender.  Young or old, male or female, these consumers expect and demand satisfaction.  I don't know if civilization as we know it could survive if these people were in the majority.

Mexican produce

For some time in the 80's and 90's, Mexican produce had a bad name.  Virtually every month, there would be a scare story about green onions, chili peppers, tomatoes causing food poisoning.  In those days, there was not Country of Origin labeling requirement, so most of these outbreaks were automatically blamed on Mexican veg.  Then came traceback requirements, stepped up inspections at the border, and finally the Country of Origin labeling.  A funny thing happened along the way.  The big spinach contamination of  2006 was an American problem, and so were a host of smaller outbreaks since then.  The few Mexican contamination  cases since then have been traced back to outlaw operations.  Meanwhile, some major American salad manufacturers have contracted with Mexicans to supply their plants on a year round basis.  Now there is a steady stream of Primus audited produce crossing at several points along the US-Mexico border. The veg business probably rivals the illicit drug smuggling industry and is paying taxes on both sides of the border.  With the immigration crazies trying to shut the border to immigrants, labor intensive veg production may actually become more important south of the border and in a perverse way may actually help the Mexican government keep its people employed at home.  The
collateral damage will occur in America as producers here can't get enough cheap labor to make their operations profitable.  Maybe John McCain"s $50./hour lettuce harvesters will become reality!

hopeful signs

Not much rain over the weekend, so got potatoes and brussels sprout transplants in and weeded some onion beds.  The grass continues to grow at a steroidal rate, but it is still too wet in spots to mow.  Usually by now even the wet spots have dried enough to at least have a go with the mower.  The cherry trees are blossoming, but the only bees I've seen so far are bumblbees.  A late spring is one thing, but we are now starting to get close to deadlines for planting some crops in Northern New York and Quebec.  We will have to have a good stretch of weather fairly soon, or thousands of acres of land will not be planted.  Even veg crops with fairly short cycles, such as lettuce and spinach will not be in steady supply as we go through the summer.  This will surely be one for the record books.

More Food Uncertainty

We had our usual morning shower at dawn today.  That will keep me from tilling any new ground for another day.  Even mowing grass is difficult with so many wet spots.  Then the news tells me there is a drought going on in Europe which will cut the wheat harvest.  Meanwhile floods in the US will cut ours.  I think we are heading for a winter of severe discontent in poor countries.

Food Insecurity

Terry Gross at NPR's Fresh Air had an interesting piece regarding grain crops as the "new oil".   With climate change making grain growing an increasingly risky business just as the emerging middle classes in China and India are demanding a diet requiring large amounts of grain for meat animals,  there will be competition for high priced grain.  While this is good news for grain exporting nations, countries such as South Korea are actually buying American grain elevators in the heartland and buying direct from American farmers.  This threatens to make the situation worse, as less grain will acutally become available on the open market.  This leaves poorer countries uable to purchase supplies at any price.  To compound the irony, China is buying land in Ethiopia and Sudan with the intention of farming and shipping the crops to China, while the starving natives are reduced to waiting for UN handouts.  Also on the line are the water resources of the Nile river which will be used to do this farming.  Meaning Egypt with its 90,000,000 people will have less water to grow crops and will be more dependent on imports.  Sounds like a recipe for social unrest and food riots within a few years.

national disaster and local renaissance

Two different pieces in today's NYT illustrate the local vs. national food debate.  Marc Bittman, the Times foodie toured Detroit's bourgeoning local food movement, where modern homesteaders establish farms and orchards on bulldozed city lots.   The city charges a nominal lease to anyone who wishes to farm these lots and it seems like the Motor City may soon become the Garden City of the midwest.  Meanwhile, further south, farmers could lose hundreds of thousands of planted acres of corn, soybeans and wheat.  Much of the crops will be a total loss and replanting will be difficult or impossible this year.  If these mega farms were small holdings, there would be a much greater chance of planting different short season crops.  Local solutions vs. mega disasters.

weather and farming

Looking back at the last month of blogging, it seems like I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about weather and its effect on farming.  While some areas have been blessed with climate regimes that vary little during the growing season, specifically most of the western US, the same is not true of the rest of the country.  As climate change continues to occur, even California agriculture will face changes they could not imagine as few as 20 years ago.  Here in the Northeast, adaptation will not be nearly as difficult for growers, since wild weather is the exception that proves the rule.  Planting late, battling frost, high rainfall, blazing heat and midsummer storms is what we do.  Jerry Shulman, my mentor in the produce business always said, "As long as farmers can bring in a crop, they will continue to farm", or words to that effect.  If the weather makes profitable farming impossible, the consequences for our civilization will be dire.  That's why weather occupies the my thoughts and those of us who are involved in agriculture.

incoming ducks

If another person tells me it's a day for the ducks, I think I'll dust off my shotgun.  Even the mallards must be tired of this weather.  Planted fields along Rt. 87 north of Plattsburgh resemble lakes and ditches surrounding them are rivers.   It's a good thing seeds can take a lot of abuse and still sprout and grow.  That ability will be tested in the next few weeks.  One grower who managed to get planted a couple of weeks ago lost the field to wild pigs.  He said the field looked like someone came in and replowed seven acres.  The worst part is now the pigs know where this particular dinner bell is ringing.  Between the rain here and flooding in the midwest, the price of corn, and thus nearly everything, especially the foodlike substances that make up a major part of many Americans' diets,will go up.

Veg Prices

Has anyone else noticed that prices for vegetables seem to be holding still or rising from what were already lofty levels at the end of last year.  In some cases, such as California or Mexican produce you can blame high freight rates caused by the soaring cost of fuel.  But that doesn't explain the higher prices for local produce, especially when the grower is not receiving much extra at the farm gate.  It would seem that the perenially excorciated "middlemen" services such as local transport, packaging, supermarket overhead,  etc. have gone up substanially.  (Please notice, I don't include produce brokers in that category, as I know from personal experience that brokerage fees are not up and in any case make up an inconsequential amount to begin with.)  Probably most of the above increases can be tied one way or another to the price of oil.  It is part of each process in the field to fork journey made by produce.

Rainy days are Monday

With apologies to the Carpenters.  But so was Saturday, and so will be Tues., Wed., Thurs., etc.  Farmers in this area are about to get seriously behind in fieldwork, with repercussions that will be felt throughout the coming season.  Each planting date missed will cause shortages of various crops down the line.  This will start the predictable chorus from receivers that local is not reliable.  Perhaps, but when the alternative is $10.00/box freight from California, an occasional shortage of local produce is probably something we all can deal with.

rainy Saturday afternoon blogging

First farmers' market in Plattsburg today.  I harvested my entire winter planted crop of spinach, about 15 lbs. worth and brought it down to my friends at Black Sheep Farms.  They will bag it and sell it for me.  I hustled back to the garden and got the first spring lettuce transplanted.  Seeded the first cilantro, green onions and some more radishes and finished the bed with cabbage and broccoli.  The forecast was for rain overnight, but it held off long enough to allow the extra field work, and now my seeds and seedlings are being watered by Mother Nature.  Hopefully she doesn't drown them in the next few days.  So far it is a light rain, but flood warnings are posted for the next 48 hours. Fortunately we are not experiencing the floods they are getting in the midwest.  The mess out there should impact ag prices and possibly veg prices as the year progresses.

spring trash roundup

I have to believe there is a motherless horde of inveterate litterers cruising past house Monzeglio every day.  How else to explain the volume of plastic bottles, food wrappers, bags of garbage etc. deposited along the side of the road.  I never see anyone do it during daylight hours, so possibly it is vampire litterbugs.  Certainly they have no mothers, since anyone properly brought up would never inflict their trash on their neighbors!

tractors away !

Like the homesteaders poised at the Oklahoma border during the land rush of 1893, tractors all around the North Country of NY and Quebec are idling at the edge of drying fields, waiting for the moment to plunge into spring planting.  That day is today, since showers are predicted from Friday through next Wednesday at least.  Much of the land is still too soggy to work, but windows are closing for some crops, such as onions.  If they are not planted by May 15, they will probably not be mature enough at harvest to store for the winter.  Other crops such as lettuce will be later than usual if not transplanted from the greenhouse this weekend.  However, if the crops are planted on land that is too moist, all kinds of other problems will ensue.   It is a Hobson's choice, but one that is all too familiar to the local growers.

going in the right direction

The lawnmower, under the direction of daughter #2 traversed the yard for the first full cut of the season.  I have been nibbling around the edges, mowing the south sides of the buildings and the tallest patches, but the first full mow proclaims that summer is around the corner.   If I don't get going in a serious way, Almena Gardens is going to spin out of control.  Between weeding, seeding and transplanting  I need 12 hours per day in addition to the 24 we already have.  Of course, it will rain this weekend, so things will be getting desperate.  But, at least the weather is moving us in the right direction.

Ag Subsidies

Although the hardy capitalists growing vegetables rarely get any government subsidy, or at least any direct payments, anyone who puts a plow into the earth has a stake in the debate over ag subsidies.   Everyone seems to agree a program that pays farmers for not planting crops is crazy.  Ditto the payments to farmers who are on the ethanol bandwagon or who are cashing in on the corn and soybean bonanza.  But the will to actually stop the taxpayer funding of these dubious programs is sorely lacking.  Meanwhile, programs to promote healthy eating (more veggies please), or even to help the poorest among us survive, i.e. the WICK program and foodstamps, are under a gleefully wielded ax.  Why is it that the impulse to deny aid to the defenseless is so much stronger than the will to ask the wealthiest to do their biblical duty.

east coast awakening

Looks like the winter plant crop of spinach is rapidly bolting to seed in New Jersey.  Hopefully we will get a few more loads before it's gone.  The spring crop looks good, but it is still several days away and the supply pipeline is nearly dry.  The trouble with spinach is it, more than most veggies, is programmed to bolt to seed as soon as any stress is applied to the crop.  Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, it doesn't matter what.  These and a host of other challenges make it a very hard crop to grow well under the conditions east coast growers face.  This has been a particularly difficult season, with excess rain, early heat and low demand when the bulk of the crop was ready.  Why anyone wants to do this every year is a tribute to a hardy band of optimists.

farming and golf

Now that I'm back behind a desk instead of teeing off, I can definitely see some similarities between golf and farming.  In both pursuits, you get up each morning with a clean slate and the expectation you can and will do better than the day before.  Then reality intrudes and you are thrilled you did as well as the day before, considering the octuple bogey you made on the 9th hole or the thunderstorm that hit just as you finished preparing to seed the first spinach of the year.  Or you think that $5 nassau is in the bag and you hit your tee shot OB on the 18th.  Just like counting your profits on the beautiful crop you raised until you find out the price of gas went to $4./gallon and everyone decided not to eat their veggies this week.  Yet, both the farmer and the golfer will go out again tomorrow expecting better of themselves than today.  It is either the very definiton of insanity or a triumph of imagination over reality.

Waiting for Golfdot

And I don't mean golfdot.com either.  7 rounds in 5 days takes a toll on a 60 year old body.  Add in the fast food and beer and you can feel like 70 in the morning and wonder why you were so anxious to do this thing in the first place.  But the weather is beautiful, albeit a little cooler than we might have wished.  There seems to be very little farming or gardening going on in Myrtle Beach, but I guess that shouldn't surprise.  The weather at home in Northern NY is still horrendous, so nothing new is happening at Almena Gardens.  The rest of the produce world is going along without me somehow, but I'm sure there will be plenty of issues to deal with on Monday.

This and that

More beautiful weather here in Myrtle Beach.  Business seems a little sluggish, both on the golf course and off.  I think many people are pinching their pennies in the Great Recession, Part 2.  The business people here seem extra anxious to please.  Hopefully, that attitude remains even after the economy picks up.

golf and produce

I doubt there is any connection between the two.  Having played golf with many different people over the years, I have seen very little produce consumed before, during or after rounds.  I think even veggie lovers give themselves permission to eat the least healthy meals possible.   However, it it could be proven that eating a  pound of carrots before a round would guarantee 10 more yards off the tee, or straighter drives, most golfers would have orange eyes!  Well, we are off to Wicked Stick for two rounds today.  I'll hit one or two for all my fellow golfers trapped in their offices today.  Ta Ta.

A beautiful 1st of May

We are in that blessed cycle (for weekend farmers) of rain during the week and mild sunny weather on weekends.  The garden was still too wet to work on Saturday, so got a bunch of seedlings started in the basement under grow lights and in the cold frames outside.  Sunday was even nicer, so got more spinach planted as well as onions and a row of strawberries.  My garden beds are either 30 or 36 inches wide and 25 to 90 feet long.  The beets and onions planted in the open garden two weeks ago are sprouting.  According to the professionals, even though the temperatures have been below normal for most of the spring, the abundant rainfall has thawed the ground sooner than is usual, so the soil temps are higher than expected.  Now, if only the fields will dry, the growers can still stay on schedule.  Unfortunately the next four days will feature rain in varying amounts with lots of clouds.  Fortunately for me, I will be in Myrtle Beach, taking soil samples.  Blogging may be spotty for the week.  Fore!!!!!