Dealing with Irene

The fallout from Irene will probably be with us for the remainder of the season here in the North Country.  In my case, after begging for rain for weeks, now we have too much.  Coupled with cooler humid conditions, disease and opportunistic weeds (I'm talking to you, galinsoga) will take advantage of weakened crops.   On the commercial level, the recent weather will slow the harvest and maturity of lettuce, spinach and cilantro.  With the record rainfall in New Jersey, we will have a long and profitable market window this fall if the weather here cooperates just a little.  Meanwhile, the lawn mowers will have to be in good shape as the grass recovers from the summer drought.  All in all, it should be an interesting couple of months.

Day 1

After restoration of power, that is.  It's amazing what the prospect of lights and hot water will do for your mood.  I checked the power company's website and it indicates we are still without power.  

Day 3

As in without electricity.  This has been said more eloquently by many others, but until you are without electricity and by extension the other trappings of modernity, you have no idea how frustrating it can be.  Since we also depend on a well for water and a furnace for hot water, we can't wash anything, as well as see after dark.  Of course the most frustrating item is dealing with the power company, in this case NYSEG.  When you finally reach a representative, they can't or won't tell you anything.  So you are literally and figuratively in the dark. 

Post hurricane cleanup and forecasts

Looks like we'll have our summer average for rainfall this year.  Too bad 5 inches came yesterday, after virtually nothing for the rest of the month.  Anything taller than 2 feet was knocked about by the storm.  the tomatoes and corn are flat on the ground courtesy of Irene, and the spinach and lettuce I planted on Saturday are now well watered.  Meanwhile, in the wholesale world, everyone is holding back hoping for a market after the strorm, but with a short week this and another next week I don't see great demand for most crops. 

More hurricane blogging

No one wants to deviate from their schedules, even though it looks like the northeast is going to take a shellacking from Irene.  At best, receivers are trying to get trucks to deliver their warehouses on Saturday, just before the storm hits.   However, many wholesalers are telling suppliers they expect deliveries on Sunday just as the storm is at its height in the Metro area.  Most truckers want no part of this.   They know if the warehouses are closed by public safety officials, the salesmen will go home and they will be stuck until everything reopens.  Which could be a long time if this storm, even weakened to a Cat 1, makes a direct hit on the NY/NJ area.

shorting the veg deal

The hurricane is going to put a big hurt on an already stressed veg deal.  If the megalopolis is not receiving anything for several days due to storm damage, product will start backing up, from loaded trucks who can't deliver to trucks at shipping point who won't load because of fear, to full coolers which restrict future harvest.  It will be a mess, unless this thing shoots out to sea.  I'm sure farmers from North Carolina to Nova Scotian are fervently praying for that to happen.  Right now it doesn't look that way.

crazy busy

No post yesterday due to crazy business.  The phone rarely stopped ringing and it was not good most of the time.  Because of the imminent hurricane, produce people are into guessing game regarding sales and deliveries.  For every extra order they put in someone else cancels.  So it seems as if you are twice as busy as normal, and you are, but not in a good way.  Meanwhile, Mother Nature continues to abuse the garden.  There is a 70% chance of rain today, but lately that means we will be in the 30% bracket.  One good rain would make a world of difference as we head toward Sept., but I don't want to hope Irene turns north and hits us, as we would get the high winds and uncertain rainfall.  I remember one storm that hit Long Island in the 70's when we got virtually no rain and high winds which transported salt spray inland and burned all the late summer veg.

Sales in the.....

The last few weeks of summer are the pits in the fresh veg industry.  It's a combination of the gardens in many peoples' back yard supplying the neighborhood, California pushing to clean their overloaded coolers and quality problems which inevitably catch up with regional shippers.  The result is the pits as far as sales go.  Unfortunately, instead of taking a vacation, salesmen have to work twice as hard this time of year just to stay even.  The bottom line is we need to change the calendar to Sept. first and write August off.

last minute stuff

Planting last minute spinach last night by the last daylight.  It was about 8:15 and it was getting hard to see the furrows.  This morning I dragged hose and watered stuff that was planted last week with only a 2 tenths shower on Sunday.  I did not think that was enough for germination.  The fall garden is taking shape, if only I can keep the weed population at bay.  At least I have a little help in that department.  My brother in law is up for a visit and is plugging away in the older plantings.  With a little luck, Sept. will be a breeze.  Now if we could only get one good rain.

Mondays......

Have I said I hate Mondays in the produce business.   If so, I apologize, but I still hate them.  Information is spotty and grudgely given by sellers.  Buyers are edgy and depending on their inventory are liable to offer far less than the market.  Problems from weekend deliveries must be taken care of, and trucks which did not load and/or deliver must be located.  Of course these problems occur every day, but they seem to be magnified on Monday.

Vagaries of Summer

Another promising storm system.  Another disappointment.  We got one nice shower of about a quarter inch of rain on Sunday morning an the rest of the day was a tease.  Just 15 miles north of me as much as an inch and one half fell.  That would have been perfect, so naturally it was not to be.  There is very little predicted for the rest of the week, so I will have to keep watering the transplants and last seedings of spinach, turnips, arugula, etc.  It does not seem to phase the weeds, however, and they keep growing no matter what.  The galinsoga is particularly drought proof. 

Crazy season

It always amazes me that you can call all your customers all week long and they tell you there is no business, then they blitz you on Friday.  It must have something to do with the weather.  How else to explain Americans actually taking the Republican presidential candidates seriously.  I would not hire any of them to even make coffee for my office.  Of course judging by the standards set by the last Republican president, that may be the best skill these people have to offer.

Minimal wages

The times has a he says/she says piece today about illegal immigrants and the price of fruits and vegetables.  Predictably, the state school economists for Cal. and Washington moan about the problems facing farmers and the more independent economists discounting the problem of finding Americans to do the jobs if illegals are out.  The fundamental problem these people have is they have never done the jobs in question, or they would not be so dismissive.  There needs to be a discussion in this country about a two tier minimum wage.  The present wage for 14-18 year olds and and a living wage for those older than the teenage worker.  And then no unemployment or welfare benefits if those jobs are available.  Then we can see if American workers are hungry enough to pick fruit and vegetables.  I know it sounds like some Republican manifesto, but the typical right winger would keep the same wages in place and cut the social safety net.  I just think we need to incentivize workers with a combination of carrots and sticks.

Going all out

After a quick tour of the gardens last evening, I turned on the afterburners and harvested some potatoes, tomatoes and collards for dinner, then sprayed the cole crops for cabbage worms and flea beetles, then fertilized and cultivated last weeks planting of lettuce and broccoli, then finally planted some spinach and turnips by the last of the late evening light.  That is the absolute peak of the gardening season.  From now on, we should start sliding toward weeding and harvesting and finally to only harvesting.  It's a bittersweet time, and I always hate to make the final planting of the season.  I'll probably keep planting spinach, arugula and turnips for a couple of weeks, even though some of it will never be harvested. 

feeling the fall

It dropped into the low 50's last night, so it felt invigorating this morning.  But it is also a wake up call.  As we get into the latter days of August, the daylight wanes faster and the some days feature crisp fall type weather.  The cauliflower plants are growing a big frame and I have spinach sprouting all over the place.  The real giveaway is the weeds.  Instead of growing a large plant before going to seed, the lambsquarters and galinsoga are making seed at much smaller sizes.  The other harbinger of fall is the local colleges will be starting fall classes in a couple of weeks.  Good business for the bars and home decor stores, but a pain for the rest of us.  Between the college kids and the Canadian influx of weekend shoppers, it's no fun getting into town on the weekends.  Ah, the price we pay for living in paradise...

pre birth conditioning for veggies

A recent NPR report says fetuses can taste what their mothers are eating.  Amniotic fluid, which the baby drinks as much as 4 tablespoons per day, is flavored by the foods the mother eats.  Garlic is easily detectable, as are many other foods.  An experiment with carrots showed that women who drank carrot juice every day while pregnant and ate carrots while breast feeding transferred  a preference for the vegetable to their children.  I can tell you that did not happen for my wife and our third daughter.  Faith ate her veggies every day and we made sure she ate well while breast feeding.  However, my daughter hates 90% of all vegetables (or so she says).  The other two young ladies could be used to argue the truth of the aforementioned study, so I guess as the song goes, "Two out of three ain't bad".

half a loaf

Or to be more accurate 3/4 of an inch of rain.  It's a lot better than nothing, but still not a drought breaker.  We are starting to get to the limit on a few crops which need a good wet to make a crop.  Winter squash, late corn and peppers to name a few.  The cole crops look good, but are stalling and they will run out of time also, unless we have a very long fall.  That is not an outcome I would bet on in the North Country.  I am still planting spinach, turnips and some oddball items like rappini to see how they do.  Actually, I just like to keep planting seeds for as long as possible.  To me there are few things more satisfying than preparing a neat seedbed and coming back a few days later to see the straight lines of seedlings standing at attention.  Bad things can happen along the way, but a newly sprouted bed of seedlings is one of the things that get my juices flowing.

wrangling for dummies

Or herding cats or joining the flat earth society.  Trying to sell produce on a Monday in August can seem like the aforementioned.  No one, buyer or seller wants to commit, because with business sluggish at best, buyers feel they can't win unless someone is willing to consign shipments to them.  Meanwhile, the sellers feel everyone is trying to put one over on them and the best strategy is to grab their marbles and go home before the neighborhood bully takes them away.  To reconcile these to attitudes is a Sisyphean task at best and usually, you wind up under the bolder at the bottom of the hill.  The only thing that you can hope is tomorrow the coolers will be full on one side and empty on the other and business will resume.  Que sera, sera......

The tease

Drove the family submarine home from Long Island yesterday.  Nine inches of rain at Kennedy airport and up to 11 inches in some south shore locations.  Meanwhile, when we reached Ulster county the rain had tapered to drizzle and when we checked the forecast for the North Country, it was sunny and warm.  Oh well, they are promising up to an inch of rain later today and tonight, so we will see.  It has been a cruel July and August so far. On the bright side, I did pick some tomatoes last night, and the skunks and raccoons shared a few ears of corn with me.

Weekend harvest

Will be felicitating with family this weekend, so the garden and I will take a break from each other.  Harvesting potatoes, herbs, greens, onions, lettuce, carrots, beets and peppers for the farmer's market this Saturday, then it's off to Long Island.  Hope it rains all day on Sunday. 

Summer blahs

The stock market is going crazy, but the veg market is consistent on a mostly downhill course.  As one customer said after I pointed out her order was about half of normal, "It's August".  That about says it all in the produce business.  The month is not even to the ides and people have already written it off and are looking ahead to Sept.  The garden looks much better with the rain, but even it says better days are coming.  The tomatoes will be late this year, but hopefully sweeter for the delay. 

Not quite enough

As a typical farmer/gardener, I am always looking at the glass half-empty.  It was a nice rain on Tuesday, but still not enough to break the drought.  I dug a few potatoes last night to clean up a row prior to planting fall spinach and beets and the ground under the hill was still very dry.  We can use a lot more rain, but the forecast is still for spotty showers and thunderstorms.  A good all day rain, preferably Monday would be perfect.  So of course it will not happen.  Just like demand for lettuce and carrots will not magically jump in the middle of August.  It is a tough sell at this time, and some growers  are dropping prices to ridiculous levels just so they can say they are moving the crop.  Among the few bright spots are spinach, cilantro and parsley which seem to be swimming against the sluggish tide of produce sales.

Rain!!!!!

Finally got an inch of rain last night.   Hooray.  We can still use some more, but at least the pressure is off most of the crops, especially the smaller transplants and seedlings.  I imagine it is still dry six inches down.  I hope things turn around from here and we start getting rain on a regular basis.  I'm sure a lot of farmers were standing out in the rain last night thanking the Flying Spagetti Monster for making the corn crop and maybe getting an extra cutting of hay for the fall.  This will kick start most of the veg crops that have been stalled by the lack of moisture and will keep later lettuce crops from showing the internal tip burn they have been experiencing.

fall crops

Even as dry as it is I keep planting for fall crops.  Spinach, turnips, lettuce, and even some carrots in cold frames.  They don't totally mature before freezing, but in the frames the small carrots have that intense fall sweetness you cannot buy in a supermarket.  Most people who taste late fall carrots can't believe those orange things in a bag are the same species.  Most vegetables that mature in cooler weather taste better, the exceptions being corn and tomatoes.  The only downside is the inevitable onset of winter.

excuses etc.

One of the worst things about being in a weather disaster area is the lack of empathy from people outside.  We are in a slow motion drought disaster here, but it is fairly local.  If you drive an hour in any direction there is plenty of moisture, so very few people know or care we are very dry.  It is affecting quality and availability of many items.  Unfortunately, prices for most vegetables are low right now.  Most people could not care less about your problems.  If you have a good price and good quality you can sell.  If you whine about your problems, you will most likely have your product in inventory at the end of the day.  On the other hand, your growers expect a bigger than normal return to make up for the smaller yields they are experiencing.  Lots of luck explaining the vagaries of the market to either side of the buy/sell equation.

August showers

Sunday evening and we are finally getting a little shower after 3 days of promises.  I'm not too optimistic we  will get enough to make a difference.  As dry as it now is we need about 2 inches of rain over a 48 hour period to really wet the soil.  All we have in the forecast is scattered and isolated thunderstorms....  This weather is taking a toll on farms and gardens alike.  Unless you have access to unlimited water, it is hard to make a crop without at least some rain.

quality problems

One of the least favorite things to do in the produce business is selling poor quality merchandise.  Although no farmer has ugly children, from time to time growing conditions are not optimum and you have to sell produce which is unable to withstand a federal inspection.  Thus begins the dance between buyer and seller.  You overdescribe the produce no one wants to buy.  If you are a little too optimistic, you will get the order and then get kicked.  You need an understanding buyer and some luck in this market.

The gang's all here

Looks like every local deal from Wisconsin and Manitoba to Maine and the Maritimes is in.  It is a race to the bottom for peppers, cukes, zukes, leaf items and broccoli and the Flying Spaghetti Monster help the one who holds out for more money or who doesn't have big volume.  You might make money with high yields at low prices or low yields at high prices, but the low yield, low price daily double is a real bottom line killer.  It's like taking the ugliest guy or gal to the dance and then they break their leg at the last number.

dying from a thousand cuts

When business is down as it has been this season, every shipment is examined with a magnifying glass and the impulse is to kick first and ask questions later.  This creates a mountain of paperwork as the problem files back up and the buyers put off settlement.  Every time you call, they think of some other excuse and when they finally do attempt to settle there will be another round of haggling.  I love this business, but sometimes it is a sore trial.

Whining for water

A quick review of the last few posts on this blog show a patter of whining for perfect gardening conditions.  I must be turning into a farmer!  As I was scratching around in the dry dirt planting fall spinach and turnips this evening, I had the germ of an idea for a novel.  As Texas continues to burn up and bake in triple digit heat, Rick Perry declares war on Michigan and leads the Texas Rangers (not the baseball team) and Chuck Norris in a desperate attempt to steal the water in Lake Michigan and pump it to Dallas.  Obviously I did not hydrate enough before proceeding to the garden.   Seriously, if the drought over the southern half of the country continues through the winter, water may become the new oil, and many of the water rich, rust belt states may decide to pump water to the south if the price is right.  It would be a big mistake, but money talks.

the homestretch

All over the north country, the planters are going back to the barn for the last time this season.  We are down to a few crops that mature from seed in less than 2 months.  The seed packets may say matures in 65 days, but that is the average.  In June and July it might be 50 days, but by mid-August, with shorter days and cooler nights it is more like 80 days, which puts us into late October for broccoli, cabbage and head lettuce.  Spinach, turnips, beets and some lettuces are still a possibility, but it's a bittersweet realization that during the hottest period of the summer your planting windows are rapidly closing.  Can the first snow be far behind.

it's a wild life out there

Looks like the skunks are eating more of my corn than I am.  The greedy little critters are worse than raccoons because they don't even wait for the corn to mature.  They start tearing down stalks a week ahead, as if they are testing for maturity.  Did I mention I hate skunks.  I trapped 7 of them last year and it looks like there are more around this year.  I guess I'll have to fence the corn next year.  I hear a couple of drops of tabasco on the ears is a good deterrent and I will try that, but skunks will eat most anything, so they may decide this is just a tasty addition to their meal.

watering and waiting

Dragged myself out at 5 a.m. this morning to water Sunday's plantings of lettuce, cabbage and broccoli.  Even though I gave them a good soaking on Sunday afternoon, a hot dry Monday had dissipated almost all the soil moisture.  I don't have enough water to cover the entire garden, so I give the transplants and seedings enough water to get started, then they are dependent on Mother Nature to  finish.  Mother has been cruel this summer and if we don't get some serious moisture shortly, it is going to be an ugly fall garden this year.  But you can't stop just because things aren't going your way.  We have a 40% chance of showers today.  Pray for rain.

Gardening for Dummies

We topped out at 91 degrees today.  Too hot for July and/or August in the North Country.  Even with irrigation the garden would be suffering.  Without it, the situation is deteriorating faster.  I am fortunate my soils are a good clay loam which holds moisture and most of the later plantings are sending roots down to the water, but you can't expect top quality with less than an inch of water during July.  One farmer says the long range forecast is for more rain by the end of the week.  I'll cross my fingers, but seeing is beleiving.   In typical farmer mode, I'll keep watering the seedlings so when the drought breaks there will still be a garden season, albeit a much shorter one than usual.

Selling sailboat fuel

One of the most frustrating dilemmas for a salesman is not having something to sell.  Your identity is bound up with your ability to supply customers, but due to circumstances beyond your control, the produce is either not available or too high priced to interest your trade.  This leads to anxiety, self examination and insecurity.  Not good.  It's like selling sailboat fuel.  The wind always blows.  Right now, so does the produce business.

August doldrums

Of course, the conventional wisdom always says August ushers in the slowest business of the year in produce.  People are on vacation, businesses are not interested in promotions and everyone is looking forward to labor day.  Any spare cash is being invested in back to school sales.  So you look to scarcity of various commodities to move the market.  Unfortunately, there don't seem to be many vegtables in short supply right now.  Meanwhile, Congress with the seemingly enthusiatic endorsement of the president is driving what's left of our economy over a cliff.  Nothing like cutting the spending of the only entity able to boost demand in a sick economy.  They say you get the government you deserve.  If that is the case, we are in deep trouble.