The Big One

Well, maybe not, but according to which report you want to believe, we will either have a little frost on Thursday morning, or the "Big One" which will signal the next phase of the gardening and farming season.   There are still some items in the garden I would like to see survive, such as Zinnias, summer squash and peppers.  On the other hand, the galinsoga is becoming a major problem...  If it is going to frost, it might as well take the weeds out.  There is still plenty of other hardy produce for the next month, but we need some dry weather, or the garlic will be planted in November.  That is not something I want to experience.   On the farms around here, there is still a fair amount of leaf lettuce to harvest, so I hope the temps don't get into the mid 20s.  Even with all the bad weather we have had in the East, the growers in Cal. have not been able to take advantage due to the sluggish economy.  Prices for most items remain at break even or a loss, but most shippers would prefer to keep their customers than to disk the fields.  The fear is their neighbor will supply the market below cost and then keep all the customers when the prices rebound.  This mindset is probably responsible for more losses than any other reason.  As always, farmers are their own worst enemies.