Backwards and Forward

Looking back over 2012, at least for the garden and the produce industry, it was a story of mixed blessings.  The winter deal in Mexico and Yuma was an unmitigated disaster as overplanting and lack of demand led to rock bottom pricing.  Produce growers must begin to wean themselves from the contract mentality which says you must overproduce to meet your obligations.  The contracts are not profitable enough to offset the returns from the overplanted acres which were usually consigned to market houses with insufficient business to absorb the surplus.   Prices rebounded somewhat as the deal moved to Salinas, but the local deals in the east which expand every year took the edge off.  Buy local is the new mantra, and the chains are scrambling to find growers who can meet the new food safety requirements.  That is not easy, as many family farms can't find the resources and expertise to devote to ramping up their compliance efforts.  Conditions did not improve as the seasons progressed and we are back to where we were last year at this time.   Personally, the garden was a mixed bag with some triumphs and a few abject failures.  The latter included the direct seeded onions and fennel, both of which suffered from the drought conditions we experienced this past summer.  On the other hand, the hot, dry weater led to a bountiful tomato and sweet corn harvest.  The lettuce was also a winner, along with carrots and beets.  With a few more timely rain showers it might have been a banner year.  To paraphrase the old saying, "2012 is dead, long live 2013".   May everyone who reads this blog have a happy and healthy New Year!

Weather and Holidays

The snow is over for the moment, and it is the Friday before what will be a long holiday weekend for most people.  New Year's eve is on Monday, so let the party begin.  Meanwhile, the shippers need to ship and receivers expect deliveries, even with the highways in less than optimum condition.  Let the fun begin.

Winter Blunderland

It's been a snowy morning and it shows no sign of letting up.  One of the jarring things about an adult snow day in the produce business is the limited scope of the area affected, compared to the overall geographic locations of our customers.  We expect 16 inches of snow here which is causing road closures and authorities are advising limited use of vehicles.  Meanwhile, it is raining in NYC and people there expect their orders delivered on time and without excuses.  My mindset is that of a 10 year old.  Let's go and play in the snow.  The adult says no that is not what we do on a weekday, even if it is snowing.  So you sell and take orders and then the trucks cancel on account of road conditions.  In other words, it's time to go play in the snow.

A Modest Proposal

Several internet commenters, including the NYT's  Paul Krugman have noted recent gains in productivity have not resulted in higher pay for workers.  The reasons cited are many, including depressed demand for said workers, globalization of trade, increased competiton and the mechanization of many occupations.  This last I think is perhaps the most important longer term trend.  As any student of agricultural history can tell you, the mechanization of farming over the last 150 years has shrunk the percentage of Americans employed on farms from close to 40% of the population to less than 3%.  Most of those workers displaced by machines were able to find work in the booming factories which led to America's ascent to the world's only superpower.  However, there is at present, no place for the workers whose place is increasingly taken by machines.  In this increasingly capital intensive economy, the relatively unskilled younger workers are unable to gain a toehold in the economic system.  If this generation can't move into more skilled positions, the next gerneration will be even less prepared and more poverty stricken as the nation's wealth becomes more and more concentrated.  Unless we want to live in a society like Orwell's "1984", we need to do something to redress the growing inequality among our citizenry.
Of course, socialism is out because "Freedommmmm".  But perhaps a little back door socialism is the way to go.  Herewith, a modest proposal for Congress whenever it finishes this fiscal cliff farce;  start by declaring that every American is entitled (that dirty word) to health care, a nutritious diet and a warm or cool place to live.  I am thinking in terms of monthly stipends to every man, woman and child in the US to cover these necessities.  Obviously this expansion of the welfare state will have to be covered by the profits and income of the rentier capitalist class.  Once the minimal material needs of everyone are taken care of, people may choose to work for more elaborate lifestyles, or not as they fancy.  I believe most of us will want to work to at least maintain a higher standard of living.  Many people will say this is a utopian fantasy, but as the underclass becomes more and more desperate, the bread and circus route will seem a more supportable alternative than an armed police state and big brother.  Just saying.

Oh SNAP!

Looks like the Agriculture bill will pass one of these days, and no doubt any programs designed to help the poor will be savaged in the name of "deficit reduction".  The chief target as always is the food stamp program, or more euphemistically, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which for some reason arouses the Scrooge in the Republican Party's base.  This dates back to Ronald Reagans apocrophal Cadillac driving welfare queens.  Of course it's probably even less true now than it was then, but when did facts ever get in the way of a good story.  One thing that might serve both sides would be a ban on using food stamps to purchase soda.   The pols could brag they are punishing the poors, especially the blahs, and by limiting food stamp purchases to healthy foods instead of high calorie junk, the country might provide better nutrition to the less fortunate and better health outcomes.   The overconsumption of highly sugared beverages has been directly linked to childhood obesity and the rise of type 2 diabetes in young adults.  Doubling the value of food stamps used at Farmers' Markets would be another good outcome if it paralells the New York program.  While we can't legislate our way out of our health problems, perhaps we can use the carrot and stick approach to encourage healthier eating among the poor.

Christmas Wishes

Since produce sales will not be foremost on people's minds this day, let me indulge in a few Christmas wishes.  Truly, let their be peace on earth, and goodwill among men.  Let us feed the poor, comfort the homeless and begin a civil discourse to solve our nation's problems.  Give our elected officials the strength to end our foreign wars and bring the troops home.  Let's deal then with our bloated defense budget and start making strategic cuts that reflect the paucity of challenges to the world's most powerful military.  Use the savings and the broadly based tax increases on those that can afford it to start federal employment programs so everyone can experience the satisfaction of useful work.  Get the economy moving, so these programs become unnecessary.  Control gun registration and ownership with commonsense rules to help eliminate the mass shootings which destroy our nation's cohesiveness.  Finally, let us give thanks this Christmas that we live in this time of vast potential to solve humanity's problems and reslove to realize our commonalities are far greater than the divisions we perceive.  All of our great religions are at their core an attempt to bridge our differences.  Let's give them a chance.  Merry Christmas to all and many more for all of us.

And all through the house...

Not a produce buyer was stirring, except maybe a louse.  The only buyers willing to do so are offering peanuts for produce or nothing but a promise to "do our best".  Those are the words sellers dread to hear.  But the expected holiday business has not come to pass and anyone with perishable green stuff is likely to make any kind of deal to move it before Christmas.   I don't know if the "fiscal cliff" is the culprit for lack of movement or perhaps the national sad over the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre, but whatever, this is one of the slowest Christmas holidays I can recall.  Unfortunately, with the tea party wingnuts seemingly in control of Congress, the sluggish markets will probably continue as we ease into the new year. 

Old and New

The old crop of carrots in Canada seem to be rapidly reaching their "Best If Used By" date as the old year winds down.  The challenging weather conditions the crop was grown and harvested under seem to be the culprits.  Hot dry weather during the heart of the growing season along with inadequate irrigation stressed the plants.  The harvest season was also unusually warm which led to more stress in the storages.  The combination is now affecting appearance and shelf life on supermarket shelves.  The chain stores have patience with  their local suppliers, but too many poor arrivals will spur calls for new carrots, especially when abundant supplies of Georgia carrots become available in January.  Meanwhile, packers will have to grade to an ever tighter standard or risk losing business to those who will.

Legislating healthy eating

Marc Bittman of the NYT is a very intense writer on the subject of food; growing it, preparing it and of course, eating food.  His style is forthright, but even a staunch liberal like yours truly can be put off by his hectoring approach to junk food.  He compares dietary lawmaking to a seat belt law.  It may infringe on your god given right to drive without seat belts or have that 32 oz. Big Gulp, but it has been proven in both cases to save lives.  Diabetes kills as surely as meeting your windshield at 60 MPH.  It just takes longer in the case of soda consumption and unfortunately a fatality from disease is way more expensive to society.  It just seems like a bigger infringement on our freedom to prevent us from drinking a soda.  I know that with the right campaign, the children will harass their parents in the matter of calorie consumption as surely as my kids policed seat belt use in our family car.  While I can't say I look forward to the so called "Nanny State" looking over my shoulder and making dietary decisions for me, I don't see a humane alternative.  Surely we will take care of our fellow citizens who continue to overindulge in dietary car crashes, but at what cost to society.  Most of these are low income, low information consumers who will be unable to afford the health care neccesitated by their choices.  Should we let them die slow painful deaths.  I think not.  On the bright side, if we can convince the 4 can a day soda drinker to eat healthy, it will be a boon to the fresh veg industry.

Green Christmas

Maybe not monetarily, but weatherwise it looks like a green Christmas this year.  It was 38 degrees and raining this morning and we should be in the forties before the day is over.  Welcome to the new normal.  The long range forecast is for cold weather by Christmas day, but no snow.   Meanwhile the vegtable deal seems stuck in reverse with little hope for improvement on too many items.  Lettuce is the chief offender, as the growers in Yuma seem to have forgotten the spanking they got last year.  Obviously one requirement for growers is a short memory, but this is ridiculous.  I guess there will be more bankruptcies and reorganizations by the time the Salinas deal begins next June.

Concentration

It is hard to think about the mundane world of vegtable sales and delivery when your thoughts keep veering back to the tragedy in Ct. on Friday and the rage that these innocents must die for the American obsession with guns.  According to the news reports, the shooter's mother was the registered owner of the assault rifle and semi-automatic hand guns used in this atrocity.  What conceivable reason could there be for a 52 year old woman to amass that much firepower in a quiet suburban community.  I'm sure there will be much more information to come regarding the circumstances that led to the massacre, but the 500 lb. gorilla of obscenely easy access to the instruments of deadly force must be dealt with.

Suffer the little children to come unto me

The tragedy in Conneticut today makes me wish I believed in heaven and hell.  Heaven for the children killed as innocents in a morality play and hell for the coward who killed himself instead of face the horrific consequences of his crime.  The commenters will make pious noises about the tragedy and after a day or two Sandy Hook Elementary will recede from the national psyche, leaving the families to cope with their unspeakable loss.  That makes how many massacres in America this year.  We are so worried about terrorists sneaking into the country, yet we seem to be nuturing a home grown crop of mindless haters armed to the teeth and willing to die as they live out their sick fantasies.  When will we usher the NRA and its allies into a padded cell and proceed to have an adult discussion about guns and the violence they beget.  Some idiots have already suggested the whole thing could have been prevented if only the teachers were packing heat.  This B.S. should be treated with the scorn it so richly deserves.  Meanwhile, my heart goes out to the survivors.  They should get all the help they need, paid for by the manufacturers of the guns used today.

Junkifying our food

Pepsico is looking for new sources of revenue, so they are now proposing to "drinkify"  foods.  Sounds pretty disgusting, and knowing the source, their first target will probably be something like milky way candy bars.  According to the press release, some company in Brazil is already offering liquid oatmeal in containers.  Somehow, I can't see the need for this particular product, but it fits with the program of  highly processing more and more foods.  I guess the final iteration of this trend will be out childhood experience of watching astronaunts enjoy a "roast beef dinner" squeezed out of a toothpaste tube.

hard sledding

An old New England aphorism extols the virtues of winter and describes summer as "six weeks of hard sledding".  Well, according to a NYT article on the effects of global warming on the ski industry, the sledding will get progressively harder in years to come.  The author says if current trends continue, by the end of the century, the ski industry will be less than 25% of its current size.  Of New York's 36 resorts, only 9 will still be able to maintain a 100 day season.  It is not explicitly stated, but that seems to be the break point for economic viability.  Here on the NCR, I was able to play golf on Dec. 8.  Meanwhile, Whiteface Mountain, probably the coldest resort in NY was able to make snow and open on Thanksgiving, but I don't think it is open now.  I think in my lifetime, I will play golf on New Year's Day in the North Country.  Forget the sledding.

Superbugs and Silent Spring

Rachel Carson's groundbreaking book, Silent Spring, awakened many around the world to the dangers of pesticides.  While many of the most egregious offenders, such as DDT and the dioxin class of pesticides were either banned or tightly controlled, there have been developed a panopoly of perhaps even more dangerous replacements.  The very ubiquity of many of these pesticides has deadened the warning signals to which we should be paying attention.  Roundup is one culprit.  Although it has not been shown to cause any human cancers yet, the steady use of this herbicide, especially on genentically modified crops has encouraged the emergence of "superweeds" which are resistant to it and many other weed killers.  This will probably lead us down the rabbit hole of further genetic modification.  At what point will crops like corn and soybeans cease to bear resemblance to their carefully bred ancestors?  Meanwhile, we pour ever more chemicals into our environment with few concerns for human health.  New studies have actually pointed to changes to human genes by these chemicals which actually doom children to obesity.  As a dedicated organic gardener, I felt I was doing my part, while my produce selling alter ego was able to shill conventionally grown produce by closing my eyes to the pesticides, fungicides and herbicides deemed necessary to feed the growing population.  Perhaps it is time to reevaluate.

Holiday push

So far, there is no rush of wholesalers and retailers to buy produce for the holiday season.  If anything, it is the reverse, with customers refusing calls from desperate shippers.  The extended warm weather regime in Yuma has pushed some shippers up to two weeks ahead of their normal harvest schedule.  Unfortunately, sales have lagged behind increased production, leading to a huge glut of unsold lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and baby lettuce.  Many unsold loads are rolling toward the east coast as I write this and I'm sure the results will be predictable.  At some point, the weather will cool and gaps in the production schedules will appear.  This will be followed by a huge hike in prices at the farm.  Whether the rest of the industry will even care will depend on sales during the next two weeks.  Strap in tightly as it will be a wild ride.

Labor and capital

Paul Krugman and several other economists are pointing to a dichotomy in productivity gains.  Up until the 1980s, the common wisdom was as productivity rose, the gains were shared by labor and the rentier class of capitalists.  As long as labor is a necessary ingredient of production, the laboring class could demand at least some of the productivity gain.  However, now the equation may be changing.  More and more robots with enhanced Artificial Intelligence are taking over some mundane tasks, as well as jobs that require college level skills.  I remember as a child being told that in the future, electricity would be too cheap to meter, and productivity gains would be so high, the average worker would have to figure out what to do with all the free time he would have on his hands.  The part we weren't told was we will all be un or underemployed with no money to use to enjoy all this free time.  What the plutocrats probably realize, but won't do anything about until the torches and pitchforks appear on their doorsteps is you cannot concentrate wealth indefinitely without creating a permanent underclass like France, circa 1789.  It ain't a pretty sight, despite the Hollywood treatment of Les Miserables.  A boost of the minimum wage to $15.00/hr. and a return to the marginal tax rates of the 1950s would go a long way toward boosting demand and achieving full employment.  The machines will be working for free, so let's let them lead us to the promised land as embodied by the 1964 World's Fair.  Otherwise, we'll be looking at a Blade Runner future.

slipping toward Christmas

Although it was 38 degrees and raining on the NCR this morning, there was snow on the grass to remind us that it is the 10th of December.  You would not have known that over the weekend.  Overcast skies and temps in the 40s on Saturday and bright sunshine on Sunday made me think of late October, especially as I harvested spinach and carrots for dinner on Sat. before watching the Divine Mrs. M sing in a production of Handel's Messiah.  The weather prediction for the week is another roller coaster, with rain alternating with nights in the teens.  If this keeps up, there will be fresh spinach for Christmas.  But I won't count on it.

Climate Cliff

With all the pearl clutching and hyperventilation going on about the "fiscal cliff", the impending climate cliff we are heading over is a vastly more dangerous precipice.  According to one study, global average temps could go up by 7 degrees F. by the year 2060.  While I don't expect to be straining the planet's resources at that point, my nascent grandchildren and their offspring will literally be lounging under the palm trees on the NCR (that's North Country Riviera for those who may not follow this blog on a regular basis).  That's definitely the most optimistic take on the effects of climate change for this area.  We are in for a wild ride, even if all governments around the world jump into remediation efforts on a full scale basis this year.  Of course the knuckle dragging science deniers in the US Congress will probably undo the efforts of the rest of the world because free enterprise.  I don't like to be downbeat about the future of humanity, but if I was offered a trip to the future, I would pass on it right now, or at least request a full environment space suit.

"healthy" snacks

The above is really an oxymoron, almost as funny as "reasonable" republican.  People generally don't associate the words healthy and snacks.  The boomer generation especially thinks of snacks as Twinkies, ring dings, etc.  with maybe a glass of milk to give the calories a fig leaf of nutrition.  That's why I had to laugh when Chiquita Brands latest riff is to emphasize healthy snacks in North America through its Fresh Express division.  A salad is great, as are carrot sticks, celery and any other fresh vegetables you care to name, but snacks they are not.

It's the weather, stupid

The northern half of the continent continues wild swings between winter and summer, while the southern half continues to deal with slightly above normal, but very good growing conditions.  The combination produces a market which is oversupplied and under demanded.  Seemingly, each produce item goes from scarcity to oversupply in a day or two.  The Mexican market will fill each short overnight with the sophisticated communication technology available.  As always, it all goes back to supply and demand.   Right now it is out of balance, and with the weather patterns continuing to shift, it looks like a bumpy ride for markets between now and Christmas.

Weather and pricing

What do Yuma, Arizona and southern Florida have in common, besides being the winter growing areas for most vegetables produced in the US?  Right now, the weather in both places is Chamber of Commerce perfect.  This leads to the second point of commonality;  low prices for said produce.  Usually, bad weather, i.e. frosts, excessive heat, torrential rains in one area leads to higher prices in the other.  Right now, beautiful weather in both areas is a drag on pricing.  Add lack of demand which is traditional in the time after Thanksgiving and you have a trifecta of bad.  It seems all the bad weather is occuring in places where the commodity crops such as wheat and corn are or will be planted.  Texas is sliding back into drought mode again.  This may have some effect on veg pricing, but compared to Florida and Arizona, Texas has little to say in this regard.  If the weather affects imports from Mexico, then we may see some increases in winter veg pricing, but for now it is a tough sell.

Dried Fruits and Nuts

It looks like another bonanza for another undeserving industry, brought to you by President Obama.  After his first election, gun sales skyrocketed as racists stocked up for the coming war with the blahs and browns.  Now, the dehydrated meal industry is gearing up for the coming black apocolypse following the President's second election.  I heard that one bunch of nut jobs in Texas have a fortified redoubt with a year's supply of food (and probably thousands of rounds of ammo) to defend against the godless hordes.  Failing that, their fallback plans involve evacuation in four stripped down school buses which they plan to use like a modern day wagon train, complete with a "circle up" mode where they park in a four square template with heavy duty machine guns commanding the approaches.  Some people have way too much time on their hands.  As if to punctuate this absurdity, I came on a website offering a year's supply of dried food for around $1400.00 (plus shipping and handling).  I to can hole up in a bunker with my dried beef stroganoff as life in these United States goes permanently (or at least til we elect a republican president) to hell.  Bon Apetit.

Old and New

The new seed catalogs are arriving every day, each with the promise of easy harvests of picture perfect vegetables.  The florid style of many of the descriptions is almost vegetable porn to us dedicated gardeners.   Of course, what they don't make clear is the hard work necessary to get to the pictures they so artfully dangle in front of us.  At least it will make the winter evenings go by faster.
   Meanwhile, the mild weather this past weekend allowed me to continue harvesting carrots.  They had a collar of frozen soil about 2 inches deep, but were easy to fork up and separate, especially with temps in the low 50s by afternoon.  I'll probably never get all of them, but we'll have enough in storage for a good part of the winter.  Although if we start juicing them we'll run out much sooner.  It looks like winter will make a comeback later this week, so aside from spinach and collards, the harvesting season is pretty much over.
    The divine Mrs. M and I hunted for holiday trees yesterday and I was struck by the paucity of the offerings in our area.  A couple of lots featured locally grown trees, but the number and size were much smaller than previous years.  We found a tree that almost met my partner's specifications at a national chain's lot, and settled on it, since it looked like a fool's errand to continue the search.  I wonder if this is the new normal with just a few lots of natural trees to choose from. 

Cliff Diving

I'm sure as we approach Jan. 1 the title of this post will grace many op-eds in papers around the country.  It's just too perfect.  Even if it is a bunch of malarkey, the picture it calls to mind is so powerful, it can't be resisted by cool reason.  A crisis is much more fun than a slow moving freight train if you are a TV personality or a columnist.  Also, why waste words on boring fiscal analysis which would surely justify the Democrats position when you can show the donkey and the elephant charging over the "cliff" in lockstep.  Then it's nobody's fault.  Or everybody's.  Personally, I think we should let the tax rate go back to Clinton era levels on everyone making more than $100,000/year.  Then raise the rates progressively and add new brackets to account for the 2% of the population who have garnered most of the wealth the country has created in the last 30 years.  Let's go to a top tax rate of 70% on income over $10,000.000/year.  Even Warren Buffet may squeal at that, but that is what it will take to bring down the deficit and maintain the minimal safety net programs the rest of the population now "enjoys".  Globalization has stratified the wealth to a degree not seen since the great depression and there needs to be a mechanism to redistribute the spoils among the greater population.   Without some variation of the above, the middle class will cease to exist and the winds of revolution will begin to blow.

Coastal futures

If someone was offering coastal futures on the stock market, I think it would be classified as a very risky investment.  A new study by a respected, non partisan outfit says sea level is now rising at a rate that is 60% higher than what previous studies have predicted.  The chance of "once in a century" storms is so much higher, they will probably be classified as "once in a decade" storms.  You can only imagine what a "once in a millenium" storm will be like. 
   One casualty of these storms will be agriculture in coastal areas.   Even if not overrun by storm surges, these storms and the torrential rainfall associated with them will effectively wipe out many farmers in these areas.  While vegetable growers will be most affected, all agricultural endeavors will be significantly more risky.  Considering the loss of prime ag land around major metro areas, this latest threat may be the death knell of large scale local ag along the east coast.  Smaller, boutique operations will continue, and if federal insurance is available and not too pricy, commodity crops will still be planted.  Still, it is hard to envision growers planting extensive acres for fall harvest if superstorms like Sandy become the norm.

vegetable snobbery

Two articles in the NYT this morning are indicative of the snobbery that is pretty common in the nation's paper of record.  Glowing reviews of a vegetarian restaurant called "Dirt Candy" and it's dessert menu which includes eggplant tiramisu make you wonder if we are on the same planet.  They don't mention prices, but with only 18 tables in the dining area, the price per meal must come to over $100.00 just to make the rent, let alone a profit.  Meanwhile, Mark Bittman who is ordinarily an "everyman" in the kitchen is trying to convince everyone to make salads with radish tops.  WTF.  In his defense, he also has a op-ed piece highlighting the rise of food banks and local food "pantries" to combat hunger in this country.  With over 48,000,000 people eligible for food stamps and more being added to the rolls each year, it would seem this is prima facie evidence of the widening gulf between the rich and poor in the US.  Instead, the Republican nominee for President this year attempted to demonize the program and its recipients and brand his opponent as the "Food Stamp President."  Instead of proposing programs to help get these people off the programs, he wanted to abolish them.  Granny starving indeed.  The saddest part of the entire piece was Bittman noting that people who are given staples like rice and beans are ignorant of how to prepare them.  Too many happy meals and highly processed heat and eat meals have weaned an entire generation from the joy and satisfaction of preparing food using raw materiasl such as the above mentioned rice and beans and cheap vegetables like cabbage and potatoes. 

Flip Flops

Sometimes weather and markets seem to track one another.  The weather is on a roller coaster right now with temps dropping to single digits on Friday morning and rising to the mid 40s by Sunday. The veg markets for onions and carrots seem to be in a similar mood.  Every time they start to rise, something or someone pulls the rug out and the pricing drops into the basement again.  It now seems that both items will get stronger as we head in to the Christmas season.  Western onions are getting bullish, and the Mexican carrot deal, while weaker than it was a couple of weeks ago still puts a floor under the Canadian deal.  Or at least that is the way it looks now.  Hopefully the veg deals can avoid the weather flops and flips.

So it begins

After the clear and chilly weekend, woke up to snow on the ground this morning.  Not much and it will melt later, but not what I was hoping for as we head into December.  The winter tires are still in the barn, so the ride to work was interesting to say the least.  Let's just say the going was easy, but the stopping was hard.  Meanwhile, the garden will probably put itself to sleep this week, especially by Thursday, when temps will remain below freezing for at least 36 hours.  Most hardy vegetables can deal with freezing temps, sometimes single digits, as long as they can thaw out.  Also, the ground must remain unfrozen.   Frozen dirt, brisk winds and subfreezing temps spell tipburn.  It has been a good run.

Hunger and the Holiday

In the food business, most buyers and sellers rarely think about hunger, except in an abstract sense.  We satisfy people's hunger.  The thought that millions of fellow Americans, not to mention billions of people around the world will go hungry tomorrow is barely conceivable to most of us.  We talk about a cornucopia of produce every day, including much that is wasted.  In this area, hundreds of tons of "deer carrots" are hauled into the woods each fall to tempt deer into range of lazy hunters tree stands.  Meanwhile, the homeless and hungry line up for free Thanksgiving dinners which salve the conscience of the do-gooders who serve them.  If a couple of the richest nations in the world can't make sure all of their citizens have enough to eat how can the rest of the world provide for the needy of their own?  It seems the only thing many countries can over produce is more human beings.  It is not a sustainable situation.

The ghost of Thanksgivings past

The Thanksgiving rush is just a ghost of its former self.  When I started in the business in the 80's, the fourth Thursday of November was the apothesis of the fall season.  People started to prepare for and talk about it in September.  Every weather event, market change and supply estimate was seen through the prism of the one day eating extravaganza at the end of the month.  Gradually, the urgency has leaked out of this deal, to the point some people have discounted it entirely.  The potatoes, onions, carrots and other hardware have built in discounts.  The few fresh vegetables which were once reliable bellweathers, such as cauliflower and broccoli don't move at all.  There is such abundance of choices that anyone who tries to push up prices on individual items is met with indifference or downright hostility.  The key to moving volume is to guarantee supply and price on a year round basis.  The holidays are merely speed bumps in the process, rather than marketing opportunities.

Contrast

Much like the early spring, this past weekend presented many opportunities for those with a passion for the outdoors.  Although temps started each day in the low 20s, there was little wind and bright sunshine which soon boosted the mercury into the low 40s.  Whiteface ski area opened to the diehards who live for that sport.  Meahwhile, the local golf courses pledged to remain open "til the snow sticks", and most of the hiking trails in the area are in great condition.  After chasing the little white ball around on Sat. morning, I made some inroads into fall gardening, dismantling the tomato cages and pulling up the plastic.  Started the last mowing for the season, and harvested some more late spinach.  All in all, a delightful weekend on the NCR.  It reminds me of Novembers from my youth on Long Island.  Of course, November in northern New York in the 60s was a winter wonderland, so evidence of climate change is certainly abundant.  I expect Decembers to become relatively mild as we head in the the coming decades.  Mowing grass in January anyone.

Revenge of the Turds

The drumbeat of hate has started to pick up already.  Less than 2 weeks after the election, the wingnuttia is already exploring the possibility of impeaching the president for "high crimes and misdemeanors" relating to the Benghazi incident.  Likewise, over 100,000 anti-Americans in Texas have signed a petition urging secession from the US.  Personally, I think we should provide all of them with bus fare to Mexico where they can renounce their citizenship.  Good riddance.  There seems to be less and less of a shared feeling of "we are all in this together" between the left and right in America.  But particularly among the racist, homophobic aging white population of the rural south and midwest this intolerance of the new America is fast reaching the boiling point.  The same idiots who want lower taxes (even if they aren't paying any) also want the demographics to reverse and all the blacks and browns to just go away.  Well, it isn't going to happen and these people are just hastening their own irrelevance to the new American century.

Accountability

A consumer in California with deep pockets is suing Dole Foods, alleging false advertising regarding the company's environmental stewardship.  It seems Dole purchased and sold over 300,000,000 pounds of bananas from a Guataemalan plantation which committed egregious environmental crimes, including damming a river and draining thousands of acres of pristine wetlands.  These acts resulted in the loss of livelihood for many subsistance farmers, as well as the environmental degradation.  The plaintiff is seeking $5 million dollars.  This may be a new trend in consumer activism.  Holding companies accountable for environmental crimes in other countries would seem to be a new frontier in litigation.   Or perhaps it will only target companies who brag about their bogus environmentally friendly programs.  Either way, large multinationals are now under notice they will be responsible for their advertising claims.

Legacies

A recent article in the NYT says the residents of the central valley in California have some of the most polluted drinking water in the US.  Nearly a hundred years of dumping fertilizer and pesticides on the fertile soils of the San Joaquin valley has resulted in levels of pollution which will take generations to reverse, if ever.  Of course, the poorest residents will bear the brunt of this disaster, since they are living at ground zero.  This is the America we might all have if the republican vision of limited government regulation is ever enacted.  Degrade your soils and water, cut the trees and overgraze public lands.  Squeeze the last drop of oil from shale deposits and pollute the rest of the country's aquifers.  But hey, you made a gigantic profit and you are living well.

Cleanups

One  of the most entertaining and frustrating times of the year in sales is cleanup.   The chains have switched to California for greenstuff, wholesalers in the Metro N.Y. area move to Jersey and the southern states are in supply.  That leaves us a few hardware items to sell and the fun of trying to ship the last pallets of some niche items like nappa cabbage and bok choy.  Once the buyers are convince you don't have fresh product because of cold temps, for all practical purposes you are done.  The only people willing to talk to you are theives and scoundrels, and even they are wary.  It is a cat and mouse game and usually we are the mice.  We circle each other and our only hope is problems in other areas which make our product more attractive.  As much as I hate to, I have to wish for the "big freeze" to save us from ourselves.

Short Days and Clouds

Only a masochist can love November in the north country.  You can count on short cloudy days, cold nights and precipitation that straddles the line between rain and snow.  If you want to harvest in the garden after 5 p.m. you better bring a flashlight, and the weekends are wet if warm and freezing if clear.  It is the long interregnum between fall and winter with the advantages of neither.  You can't golf and you can't ski, at least most of the time.  One of the bright spots of the coming climate change is the experts are now predicting we will have weather similar to North Carolina or Virginia.  A long mild fall and minimal winter in the Champlain valley will be something to cheer.  Of course the long blistering summer which may precede it will be no picnic.  I wonder what Virginians will face in the near future.

Palm Tree Monday

The thermometer on the dashboard registered 55 dgrees at 6:30 this morning and the weather gurus say we will reach the upper 60s later today.  The rest of the week, not so much, but still it is Nov. 12, and I'm wearing shorts.  If this doesn't make people sit up and take notice, there's not much that will.  Of course the climate change deniers will point to the snowstorm in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and say global warming is a hoax, but what about "Climate Change".  It will be interesting to see if winter growing areas in S.Texas, Mexico and Arizona are affected by storms and up and down temps.  A big failure ing tomato and lettuce growing areas will be further proof that mankind must start to deal with the legacy of 250 years of ever increasing carbon emissions before a catastrophic blow to an important food producing area cripples the economy and hurts the most vulnerable among us.  Meanwhile, I got another bed of garlic planted and finished harvesting the celery root.  Still plenty of leeks, kale, spinach, carrots and beets out in the garden and this week's weather will not change that supply.

Post Election Thoughts

The same idiotic pundits who confidently predicted a Romney victory are now advising the President and Democrats how they should snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Extend the tax  cuts for the wealthy and reverse the spending cuts on defense and the Republicans will allow you to cut Social Security and Medicare.  The scary thing is some Dems are even talking about this scenario.  It would be like a wholesaler telling you to keep the low price on carrots to him for the next month and somehow he will make it up later.  Only you know later in this case means never.  But enough politics.  It will be in the mid 60s here on the NCR this Sunday.  My golf clubs are calling me.

Late Indian summer

It looks like we will have another respite from the coming winter this weekend.  With temps in the upper 50s on Sunday and the 60s on Monday, there will be a garden revival.  The spinach and kale will recover and I may get to harvest some celery root by Sunday if it was not damaged too much during the past couple of days.  I think it is pretty hardy, but I planted quite a bit for the farmers' market and there is definitely more than the Divine Mrs. M can possibly use.  There should still be some leaf lettuce available by Saturday.  The Red Sails variety is very hardy.  The problem right now is there is far too much to eat and not enough mouths.  Unfortunately, the local food bank doesn't want spinach and lettuce, or beets for that matter.  The food insecure in this neighborhood are not very big veg eaters.  Strictly meat and potatoes.

Truth and Consequences

The popping sound you heard at 10:30 last night was the talking heads at Fox news exploding.  The great black satan had been re-elected.  I spent another couple of hours at my local congressman's office waiting for his much tighter race to be decided.  That turned out well also.  It was a good night for truth, justice and the new American way.  The only demographics which will come away from this election with a sad are the old, white, rich, racist, homophobic and/or diehard republicans.  Still a significant chunk of the population, but one whose days are numbered.  We are becoming a more inclusive society, which will serve us well in the long run.  Now we can tackle many of the problems which would have been ignored or exacerbated under a Romney presidency.  Income inequality, global warming, off shoring, the continuing health care issues and many others.  The Senate will be a more liberal body and even the House will have to listen to the voice of a people who are tired of the bull---- being dished by Boehner and company.  It's a new day and I am proud to be an American.

Election Day

Got out my own vote this morning at 6:10 a.m.  Everyone seemed cheerful and it took about 5 minutes to complete the process.  If it was this easy in every prescint in the nation, there would be no presidential race.   Obama would crush Romney.  However, in Republican dominated states they have thrown up roadblocks to voting which are designed to suppress the votes of historically Democratic constituencies.  My little polling place had at least 10 voting stations and I would estimate they could process the entire voting age population in a couple of hours.  This should be the gold standard of voting across the country.  Anyway, it is a beautiful day on the NCR and I hope the best men and women win, for the sake of the present and future generations of our fair country. 

Mother Nature's somewhat small hammer

Despite the dire warnings, temps were hovering in the mid 30s this morning under the clouds on the NCR.  Fortunately, the soil was dry enough to work on Saturday and I managed to plant about 2000 cloves of garlic.  I will try to get the rest of it planted next weekend under more clement conditions.  With the weather predictions still for a couple of cold mornings on Tuesday and Wednesday, I also harvested whatever cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage were ready and also dug the remaining potatoes and some carrots and beets for good measure.  There is still plenty of the latter available.  Certainly more than we can possibly eat this winter.  Of course, with a nor'easter on the way, we may be under snow by Thursday afternoon.  It looks like the wholesale markets in the Northeast are recovering just in time to get slugged again later this week.  Rain and 50 MPH winds will only exacerbate the effects of Sandy and postpone full recovery.  With over 1/2 million people still without power, veg sales will still be slow this week.

Hammer down

Looks like Mother Nature will be swinging a big hammer come Monday morning.  With temperatures in the mid 20s for a couple of mornings, the semi hardy crops like broccoli and cauliflower will be damaged beyond quick recover, especially at this time of year.  The hardy stuff like spinach, kale and brussels sprouts will continue.  The weather will moderate later in the week, and I expect to plant 40 lbs. of garlic next weekend with temps in the 60s and sunshine.  And, dare we say maybe a little golf.  Meanwhile, the wholesale markets are being pounded by the lingering problems relating to Sandy.  Consumers are unable to buy veggies if they can't keep them cold and the green stuff is not a priority anyway.  We think everyone has to eat, but in a crisis situation, the first edible item to be banished from the plate is fresh vegetables. 

Tiptoeing past the graveyard

The aftermath of superstorm Sandy has led to predictable and also some unpredictable postscripts.  Along with all the reporting of loss of life, damage to property and potential losses caused by the storm, some commenters were actually, if diffidently bringing up the 500 lb. gorilla in the room; namely, climate change.  In this rabidly anti-science 21st century America, even the 97% of climate scientists who agree on the manmade nature of global warming can be shouted down by a college dropout who rants daily on talk radio.  That such a profoundly stupid man can shape the national dialogue is a sad footnote in the story of our decline as a nation.  Meanwhile, the voices of sanity are starting to sound albeit tentatively regarding the long term dangers of climate change.  When the corporate overlords of weather outlets such as the weather channel stop muzzling their employees, there will be educated counterbalances to gas bags like Limbaugh.  In the meantime, the government needs to educate citizens regarding the catastrophe we face and to lead efforts to combat the pernicious effects of greenhouse gases on our biosphere.  It may be too late to avert some of the consequences, but to not attempt amelioration would be suicidal.  Meanwhile, I hope to get next year's garlic crop in the ground this weekend.

Storms of the century

I have rarely seen a category 1 hurricane hyped as much by the media as Sandy has been for the past several days.  Perhaps the confluence of other systems and factors has combined, along with the sheer size of the storm to give it the necessary strength and longevity to warrant the buildup.  Or, less charitably, the media is looking for something besides the presidential race to blow up.  Either way, we will know later today if it is real or if it is the usual hysteria.   We have already had several "storms of the century" and it is only 2012.  500 year floods are a commonplace, and it looks like Sandy will generate another.  At some point, perhaps the "very serious people" will tell us that yes, we can believe the relentless drumbeat of scientific evidence of climate change and get down to the hard work of dealing with it.  Meanwhile, I am in sunny southern California for a couple of days.  I had planned this trip before the weather blew up, so I would probably be here in any case, but there are many unscheduled visitors left stranded as the airports in the Northeast are closed today.  Ah well, we must all suffer these slings.

New normal weather

This is another in a series of posts on weather.  We are somewhat above normal for temp and rainfall this autumn, and it looks like more of the same as we slide into next week.   A powerful storm in the Carribean may interact with several other fronts moving across the continent and deliver a powerful blow to the mid atlantic states.  That this is happening points to the increasing variability of weather as it relates to agriculture.  Early plantings in Florida will be in jeopardy as this new rain maker dumps on the peninsula.   The late harvest in Virginia and New Jersey will be problematic with a big rainfall.  It is a shame and a scandal that neither political campaign has addressed the problems associated with climate change.  Maybe it will take an abnormal and catastrophic weather event to get the discussion started.

mild weather

Although we had a little frost this morning, the forecast for the next few days is nothing short of spectacular.  Sunshine and temps in the low 70s on Thursday and Fri. remind me of Virginia weather this time of year, not fall in the NCR.  The cole crops and spinach continue to look good and even continue to grow.  The late planting of savoy cabbage is thriving, as are the beets and carrots.  Of course, the hammer can come down suddenly and close us up in a hurry, so let's enjoy the weather as it is.

Rain, Rain, go away

I should bite my tongue, but this is ridiculous.  The garlic needs to be planted and the last of the fall veg needs to mature, but all of a sudden, it's the rainy season here on the NCR.  I'm sure we are closing in on our average rainfall for the year.  Too bad it is all concentrated in the time period we need it least.  The fall leaf season was mostly a washout, and now farmers with beans and corn in the field are starting to sweat, as conditions become more and more muddy.  With no heavy freezes predicted, the going will get tougher.  Vegetable growers trying to get potatoes and carrots into storage before the freeze are also nervous as the days slide by and the showers keep coming.   I know I will regret the title of this post next July, but WTF.

depression blues

The old excuse "They are waiting for their checks" is already being trotted out by the usual suspects to explain the lack of movement of fresh produce.  No one examines this claim very often, but I think it rests on shaky ground.  The assumption is people on the lower end of the economic scale are waiting for their social security, welfare, pension or other government support program largesse so they can rush out to stores and buy lots of fresh produce.  Unfortunately, studies have shown that lower economic status also equates to less produce consumption and poorer diet choices.  So the 47% are not really boosting produce sales.   My experience at the Farmer's market is mixed.  The clientele is a mix of high income professionals and food stamp recipients, and for the market to work, both must have their buying shoes on.  I have to admit I did not keep track of receipts at the end of each month as opposed to the beginning, but  I only have data from 5 months.  Meanwhile, the markets are quiet and everyone is looking for excuses.

Progression

A little more frost on the proverbial pumpkin this morning.  Temps are a little cooler than forecast, but no wind, so the hardy crops will continue to grow, especially with warmer weather and rain predicted for the end of the week.  Growers continue to be restless and worried about lack of movement on the wholesale and retail levels.  Prices continue to drop despite the lack of demand, even on storage crops.  The old saw that you should sell in a rising market and hold in a falling one is being turned on its head, as usual. 

Slow times in the Vegetable Biz

I doubt it is the coming elections that is producing the current malaise in the produce biz.  Neither of the presidential candidates seem to have strong feelings one way or the other regarding veggies.  Obama certainly has an edge, what with Michelle's garden on the south lawn.  You would think they would play up to the gardeners' vote.  I doubt Ann Romney has had dirt on her hands since she was a toddler.  Meanwhile, most wholesalers and retailers have written off the produce section until the Thanksgiving rush.  A few pumpkins for Halloween do not a market make. 

New Season

The big frost and my first bad cold in some time coincided on Sat. morning.  Temps dipped into the mid 20s and held for several hours, so most of the tender crops are done.  The galinsoga is also down, so that is a plus.  With the cold still sapping my strength, I couldn't accomplish much, but I did survey the damage and on Sunday, with the help of the divine Mrs. M was able to clear the beds where the garlic will be planted.  The weather has now turned warm again, so the rest of the garden should resume growth.   Alas, the tomatoes and peppers are history.

Winners and losers

The usual suspects performed about as expected on Monday night.   The cukes and beans look forlorn and are barely hanging on after a 35 degree low.  the tips of the tomatoes also took a hit, but the vines still look good.  Unfortunately, the thrice damned galinsoga weed was still growing strongly yesterday.   The weatherman is predicting 28 on Friday night, so that should take the weeds out as well as the aforementioned summer loving crops.  The brassicas continue to grow grudgingly, but the spinach plantings are gathering steam.  Next week should be warmer, so the last lettuce plantings will mature.  The weather continues to torment commercial growers in the northeast.  Although it is a little warmer than normal it is also a lot wetter.  What good are mature crops if you can't harvest them.

First Frost

Well, old man winter poked his finger in my eye this morning.  I had to scrape the windshield and find some washer fluid to get the ice off.  It will be interesting to see what damage occurred.  I hope the galinsoga was flattened anyway.

Hanging on

Still picking cucumbers and stringbeans in October here on the NCR.  I even found a 20 lb. watermelon in the weeds while picking up winter squash on Saturday.  It is amazing the frost is hold ing off for as long as it has.  If we dodge it tonight we will probably be good until Friday, although at this point, there is not a whole lot of frost susceptable veg out there.  The tomatoes are still green and trying to grow, but the ripening process is agonizingly slow and most of the ripe ones are cracking.  The peppers made a new set when it started to rain again, but they will never get large enough to pick.   That leaves the crucifers, spinach, beets, carrots, lettuce and other hardy stuff to keep things interesting as the month progresses.  The long range forecast is for above normal temps, so if the rain will hold off, there is still plenty of gardening to be done before winter closes in.

unseasonable seasons

We are still waiting for the first frost here on the NCR.  It was an unseasonable 55 degrees at 5:30 this morning and we will probably get to 70 today.  Unfortunately, this warmth is accompanied by intermittent wiper weather.  This nearly constant light rain is not helping maturity of crop which would ordinarily be croaked by frost anyway.  There are plenty of green tomatoes on the eerily green vines, but they can't seem to color up.  Meanwhile, the spinach is getting pale under the constant cloud cover.  The sun is threatening to come out today for a few minutes and that will help, but we are in for more rain tonight and tomorrow.  I can't help but think this is a harbinger of seasons to come.  Home grown tomatoes and lettuce for Thanksgiving day salads and spinach and cauliflower on Christmas.  That doesn't seem too fantastic anymore.

New Life in old places

Dug some potatoes on Sunday.  The interesting part of the story is they were green and growing, some 4 months after planting.  The vines never died an actually are putting on a second set of small potatos.  I harvested the sweet potatos also.  Some vines had virtually nothing underneath, while others had several 2 lb. tubers.  I think with adequate rainfall I would have had quite a few more usable sweets.  As they say, it's a learning process.  Still no frost predicted until this Sunday, so the beans, tomatoes and lettuce will continue to grow.  the cauliflower is finally starting to head up.  There are a few showing and more are starting to grow.  It has been a struggle for crucifers this year.  The rain has continued off and on for several days now and the soil is almost saturated, to the point I am starting to worry about planting garlic in mud later this fall.  I hope it is not the case, but the way the seasons have played out, nothing will surprise me.

Waiting for the frost

Waiting for the last frost in the spring is sort of an anticlimax.  One morning, there is no freezing temperature, but you don't know if that is the last one until a series of warmer mornings convince you that it is time to put out the tomatoes.  In the fall, the first frost can be the end of most gardens, and it has the air of finality.  Each morning you walk out and feel the temp at 40 degrees or more you let out the breath you have metaphorically have held all night.  It looks like we have dodged the bullet for another week here on the NCR.  The tomatoes and beans still look good.

Referees and the other "help"

It's pretty amazing when an obviously blown call on national TV that affects the psyche of football fans across America prompts the end of a strike which most felt would extend through the season.  The closest comparison I can think of is the air traffic controllers strike in 1981.  Reagan made a calculated decision to risk the lives of millions of air travelors to break the union.  Had a single plane crash in that time been traced back to replacement controllers, the political damage to the president would have been catastrophic.  The union movement would have been much stronger as workers saw the power of unity demonstrated and validated.  Instead, we witness the referees' union grow more powerful without adding any impetus to the movement.   In these two instances it is possible to draw a direct line between scabs and disaster.  Game outcomes are changed; planes crash.  Unfortunately, if teachers or auto workers strike, it is harder to quantify the damage done by replacements.  It is a quandry for the labor movement and it will not be resolved as long as their is an 8% unemployment rate.

Nutrition and health care

It's a shame that the focus of the ongoing health care debate is on the treatment of symptoms and disease rather than the prevention of same.  As much as we all get a guilty pleasure when we see the "Walmartian" pictures showing the grossly overwieght shoppers at the store we love to hate, these unfortunate individuals should be driving the debate over health care.  These people and their children will overwhelm the system in a few decades unless they have a drastic change in the diet they consume.  Starting your day with a soda and a bowl of highly sweetened cereal and going downhill from there is not the way to maintain a healthy weight.  If the government would partner with fresh veg producers the same way it subsidizes  corn and cattle growers we would be on a much healthier path as a nation.

Atonement

The Jewish religion can sometimes seem incomprehensible to an outsider, especially to those brought up in more rigidly structured faiths like Roman Catholicism.  It seems everyone is an expert and there is no right way to approach the sacred texts.  But they have something that no other religion offers.  The Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur gives the observant Jew an opportunity to make up for a year of screwups.  Or at least to reflect on the transgressions of the past year and plan to avoid them during the new one.   At least that is my interpretation of the day.  As a lapsed Catholic who spent many a terrifying interlude in a darkened confessional, a once a year wrestling match with my conscience seems like a much more civilized alternative.    The one time 24 hour fast is easier than the Ramadan extravaganza the Muslims inflict on themselves, but it serves the purpose of reminding the faithful...of what.   Randy Newman said it best when he put the following words in god's mouth after enumerating a series of natural disasters laying waste to the earth.  Representatives of the major religions ask god what they are doing wrong and what can they do to stop the divine retribution falling on their heads.. God responds  "That's why I love mankind".

Winding down the season

The tomatoes have stopped ripening at the frenetic pace of two weeks ago.  Although there are plenty of green ones hanging, they seem to be in no hurry to turn color, unlike the sumac.  The small peppers have pretty much stopped growing and it looks like  the cukes are feeling the same way.   There is no frost predicted for the NCR at least through the coming weekend, so the season will continue in the present desultory fashion for the moment.  The spinach I planted last Saturday was up and growing yesterday.  Whether it gets big enough to make it through the winter is another story.  Meanwhile, the wholesale markets remain in the doldrums as people also make the transition to fall and winter eating. 

Averages

Looks like a rainy weekend coming up.  We will probably have a series of them now, since we need to make up our average rainfall for the year.  As several farmers around the country have told me, the averages are becoming more and more deceiving, as long interavals of drought are punctuated with torrential rain that runs off the baked soil.  So it will be a wet fall, which will at least rebuild the subsoil moisture for next year.  Unfortunately, the customers at the farmers' market on Saturday are usually not in a buying mood in rainy, cool weather.  so the leftovers will be substatial.  It all comes down to making the averages.

The Frost creeps in

A very little patch of white on one corner of the garage roof was the only evidence of frost on the NCR this morning at 6:15 a.m.  We probably had a little more as the sun started to come up, but there will be no damage.  However, not the same story in less favored areas of the North Country.  The head lettuce was frozen 4 leaves deep.  The inner leaves will probably thaw with no damage, but growers will have to peel the top leaf.  Anyone growing cukes or tomatoes in this area is probably done, but because of its suceptibility to frost, there are few if any growers tempting fate this late in the season.  There are many milder areas near Montreal where tender crops can be grown into October.  I'm still waiting for my last planting of spinach for overwintering to break the ground.  There is plenty of work to do, but it looks like little or no chance of further freezes at least til the end of Sept.

Shouting at the radio

I don't normally talk to my car radio, but this election season has inspired more than a few profane monologues in reply to some of the ideological morons featured on my local NPR (Nice Polite Republicans) station.   Today they featured Eric Erickson of Red State, one of the keyboard commandos fighting the culture wars from the standpoint of  the disaffected lower middle class white bigot.  This is a coveted demographic, fought over by Limbaugh, FOX news and the right wing noise machine.  For him to be given the megaphone of public radio to spew his toxic us against them message is at best deplorable.  He seems to feel Mittens should double down on the message he preached to his $50,000/plate supporters, namely 47% of Americans are hopeless moochers who need tough love from their Republican daddies.  Ericson feels Romney needs to own this particular line of BS.  As I  started to question his parentage, I realized this could probably be the final nail in the coffin if only the Republicans will take this advice.  Let's hope for the sake of our future that this morally bankrupt position becomes a well publicized talking point.

Harvest Jamboree

The title refers to the raccoons frolicking in the last planting of corn.  As I tilled the stalks under in disgust, it looked like they harvested at least as much as I did.  I've been told by some family members I should not be mad at the critters who help themselves to the garden bounty.  The argument is we should feel they perceive the garden as a gift to be enjoyed.  Next year, they are going to enjoy a quick trip to the local wildlife refuge, or failing that a small caliber final solution. 

Taking stock

As I walk around the gardens in the fall, I try to tally up the successes and failures of the past season and pinpoint the reasons for the one or the other.   Corn, tomatoes and lettuce were great this year, the former two because of the dry, hot summer and the lettuce despite those conditions.  Onions, shallots, potatoes and fennel were big failures, due to poor germination on the onions and wrong variety/wrong conditions for the fennel, and some sort of blight (not the dreaded late) on the potatoes.  Most of the other crops were not so bad, but not great.  I think the extended dry, hot conditions were the culprit for most of the problems and there is not a lot I can do to solve that problem short of digging a pond... hmmm.  The other things  that can be done are planning ahead for better varieties, scheduling seeding more timely and finding organic solutions to blight and mildew problems.   There is still plenty of gardening left before the big freeze.  I am still planting spinach to winter over, composting old plantings and cleaning up around the homestead.   The 2013 seed catalogs will be here before you know it.

September blues and blahs

September is always a pivotal month in the farm and garden.  Most of us have become tired of the relentless cycle of seeding, transplanting, weeding, spraying and harvesting during daylight hours.  The temptation is to drop everything but harvest.  Meanwhile, there is much to be done to prepare for next year.  Cleaning up or turning under crop debris, preparing beds for garlic planting, noting the successes and the failures and planning for next year.  Personally, I think I'll play as much golf as possible and fit the garden around that.

Signs of fall

Saw a flock of geese on Sunday (they were flying north, but what the hey) and some stressed trees are starting to turn colors, but the surest sign we are heading for fall is the number of farmers reporting they are nearing the end of their plantings.  Despite the fact we probably have a month of decent weather yet, the early heat has pushed many plantings of lettuce to be ready two to three weeks early.  So it looks like the big push will be over before the end of the month.  It is a bittersweet time, especially when the markets look good.  One thing salesmen hate is to be on the job with little or nothing to sell in a good market.  I stretched the lettuce plantings at home, so I'll probably have lettuce until the end of farmers' market season.  I'll still plant a little more spinach, but other than that it will be cleanup and harvest time in the garden.

Supply and demand

Whether it's produce, trucking or widgets, the law of supply and demand is primary.  The supply of celery in Quebec seems rather light at this time and we are selling out too quickly, so it is time to raise the price.  Trucks are also in somewhat short supply and truckers are starting to try to raise the price also.   Sometimes, sellers ovedshoot the demand curve and wind up with nothing.  Raise the price of celery too high and it sits in your cooler.  Demand too much for your truck and grass will grow around the wheels before it moves.   The moral is to find the delicate balance where produce and trucks move at fair prices for all involved.  It sounds easy, but I've been doing this for almost 30 years and I'm still learning.

Flirting with Frosty

Many growers in the North Country had their fingers crossed last night.  The Weather service predicted some frost in the normal cold spots, but as we get to the ides of September, historically the frost can become widespread quickly.  Fortunately, we all dodged the bullet.  Now we wait for the next full moon later this month.  Temps are expected to warm quickly, and we will be back in summer mode by Thursday.  The last planting of beans is making progress, but it's nothing like midsummer when you can pick every other day.  The rains last week are helping the later plantings, so there is really nothing to complain about at this point.  Now if only the markets would help make up for the reduced yields most growers experienced earlier....  I can't help myself.

Wild Ride

The weather gods were angry this weekend.  Sat. afternoon brought winds and a brief but torrential downpour.  I had planted spinach earlier in the day, so I think I am safe for good germination, unlike the last planting.  Unfortunately, the basil is being attacked by some sort of fungus which looks like it may wipe out the rest of the plantings for the season.  Basil is one of the biggest sellers at the farmer's market, so that will take a bite out of earnings for the last few markets.  Starting to do some fall clean up and planning for the annual garlic planting, which seems to get later and later each year.  I'm figuring we will have a  long, wet fall to make up for the hot, dry summer. At least that's how I see it now.

This and that

The democrats nominated President Obama for a second term last night.  His acceptance speech no doubt caused some (but not enough) republican and tea party heads to explode.  Contrary to 40 years of  denigrating the role of government in our lives, the president made the case for the "hard and necessary work of self government".  This line is the essence of  our shared responsibility for the commonwealth.  Without we the people, government becomes the caricature the republicans would have us believe is the best we can do.  Don't vote, don't participate and you will do exactly what the 1% would prefer.  Government by the few, for the few with the rest of us along for the ride at the back of the bus.  It is not easy to be a self governing people, and my generation is somewhat at fault for not raising America's awareness of its responsibilities.  Perhaps Mr. Obama, the tail end of the boomer generation can repair that omission.  I certainly hope he gets the chance.

Aftereffects

The drought is dead, long live the drought.   Although there is plenty of moisture in the soil now and more on the way, the cruel truth is for many growers and crops it was too late to make a difference.  Cabbage growers are saying the crop is stunted and will not make a real crop.  Late plantings of many vegetables were so stressed earlier in the season they will never make up the lost days.  Many corn growers are baling the crop or making silage instead of harvesting a very reduced grain crop.  Soybean fields have turned yellow and are dropping their leaves and it doesn't look like much of a crop from the road.  In the home garden it is still too early to tell what will happen with some crops.  I still have hopes for the cauliflower and sweet potatoes.  The late crop of plum tomatoes look good, although too late for the farmer's market and too late for home sauce making.   My fennel is gone to seed and the leeks are infested with a borer.  But the late beets and carrots are excellent.  It's a mixed bag, but probably as good as can be expected with the weather cards we were dealt.

Time to build the ark

Well, the skies opened up last night and I actually saw water running in the roadside ditch this morning for the first time in several months.  While it is too late for some crops, the water should make the later plantings of cauliflower and broccoli mature and certainly will help fall plantings of greens and cabbage.  I see good chances of rain in the forecast through Sunday, so maybe the drought is broken.  But it has been a wakeup call for me and for many growers who have heretofore depended on the vagaries of the rain gods to make their crops.  One grower is already planning new irrigation ponds for next year.  I'm thinking about drip irrigation, especially for long season crops which will be in the ground for months.  We are entering a more challenging climate regime and new strategies will be necessary to deal with it.  One harbinger is  new greenhouse company in New York which is selling turnkey greenhouse systems to large chain grocers.  The plan is to set  the greenhouses in the area serviced by the chain and hire a local grower to run the operation and deliver the produce to the chain.  I am somewhat sceptical this will be a viable business model, but controlling the growing environment may become necessary in the future.

A chance of showers

As one radio host put it, "We've had showers in the forecast many times this summer, but no actual rain".   That pretty much sums up the weather predictions.  It is almost as if the weathermen cannot believe we have not had rain in a month, so make us feel better they put a forecast of showers in.  Today looks like the real deal, but it will be too late for many crops.  The dry weather has provided one benefit.  It has concentrated the taste of corn and tomatoes.  It has been a vintage year for tomato sauce and corn on the cob.  The flavors are intense and redolent of the best imaginings of summer.  The other benefit has been the relative lack of disease, especially the dreaded late blight in tomatoes.  Overall, however, it has been a trying growing season.  I transplanted the last of thelettuce yesterday, and continue to plant spinach and some short season growers such as raab broccoli and radishes.  Maybe if we get some rain today and tomorrow my heart will be back into the game.

Another disappointment

In a season filled with them, it's just another in a series.  I should have realized we wouldn't get any rain when the sun popped out at 7:30 as the sky began to weep.  This morning  the weather forecast was updated to partly cloudy and no more threat of precip until the weekend.  At this point I am so disgusted with the weather I feel like screaming, but instead I'll just continue the triage of watering the most desparate crops and let the others suffer.  That's all I've got.

Death watches

One cabbage grower near the office said this morning if we don't get significant rain today or tomorrow on his non irrigated fields, there will be no crop.  Although he is a minority these days, even growers with irrigation are behind on many crops.  As I sweated yesterday while transplanting late lettuce, I had to re-water the transplants from last week or they would have been permanently damaged by the brutal heat and drying winds.  The plants looked much better afterward, but they are still somewhat set back and will probably show damage unless we get rain.  The later plantings of corn will not fill out correctly without moisture.   Even the sweet potatoes will not make much of a crop unless something besides relentless sunshine falls out of the sky.  Last year at this time, Irene decimated many crops in three day deluge.  This year's apocolypse is a slow moving disaster that some will avoid, but many will remember as the year that Mother Nature forgot to weep.

West coast hopes

The lettuce growers and shippers in California are eagerly waiting for the premature end of the lettuce deals on the East Coast and Midwest.  I believe they may be celebrating prematurely thanks to anticipation of warmer weather in this area.   Without firm evidence, I think many growers continued planting long after the normal dates they shut down their planters and transplanters.  Many were affected by early summer storms which wiped out early acreage.  Others may have realized the hot weather was accelearting crop development and would put an early end to an otherwise productive season.  In my own micro farm I still have two more weeks of transplants to set out.   Barring a hard frost, I will be harvesting the last lettuces in mid to late October.  I doubt too many commercial growers will follow that program, but as "climate change" continues on its merry way, more and more farmers will adapt and seasons here will get longer.  Meanwhile the California deal will have to wait its turn.

August doldrums

It's that time of the summer once again.  Business is dreadful and the usual complaints are trotted out:  it's vacation time, one last hurrah before school begins, too much local, too many gardens, and on and on.  Of course, there is truth in each of the above, and as the baby boom generation advances to senior citizen status these trends are likely to be amplified.  The children of the boomers are even less likely to buy and cook vegetables than their parents, unless driven by economic or health issues.  As a kid, virtually everyone I knew ate dinner at home, usually cooked by the stay at home mother.  As my generation came of age, the rise of women in the work force and the obsessive nature of our childrens' extra-curricular activities led to the truncated dinner and the fast food generation.  Many people resisted this trend, but all of us have been guilty at one time or another of choosing Mickey Ds over the healty alternative.  Add millions of these choices and the veg deal suffers, especially in August.

"Too many idiots"

That was one salesman's summary of his competitors in the pepper deal this morning.   If only these benighted growers and salesmen would see the true market, the prices would magically rise to the level they should be at.  And we would all be riding magical ponies.   The markets are almost always about perceptions.  All it takes is the feeling your competition is getting more for the product and you will raise prices.  You feel he is "stealing" your business, you drop the market to regain what you perceive to be your share.  Buyers play on these insecurities and the games continue all season.  The usual suspects drop and rarely raise prices and the rest of the marketers grumble and react. 

Weather anxiety

Speaking with a grower this morning who had just returned from a sortie to his most distant potato fields you could feel the angst.  "It's a good thing I'm not a depressive alcoholic", was his take on the dought stricken farm.  Just a shower at the right time and there would be a decent crop he said, but so far it looks like clear, sunny weather as far as the eye can see.  Local apple growers are saying they will have a decent crop, but small due to the dry weather.  In farming, the difference between making and losing money is weather.  Too much or too little of any of Mother Nature's offerings can be fatal.  Last year, after Irene, many growers wished for dry weather.  Now they have it and  most are probably sorry for the change.  As the climate wierds out on us, these swings will get stronger and stronger and will make farming more of a gamble than ever.

Dry Weather

For the vacationer in the North Country, the weather prediction for the week is an unmitigated blessing.  Dry and warm during the day with cool evenings.  Typical Chamber of Commerce weather for this time of year.  If you make your living growing corn, soybeans or veggies, this weather is a disaster.  Although pockets of the NCR have had some decent rains and the forecasters say we are not far from normal rainfall totals this year, I have seen many fields in desparate need of a timely shower.  The damage is not irreversible yet, but with no respite predicted for the next ten days, the clock is ticking.

Fridays....

Looks like the lettuce crops are still showing problems left over from the last heat wave.  The iceberg in commercial fields has excessive bottom rot from the increased humidity after the recent rains which unfortunately did not break the heat wave we were experiencing.  Combined with the rain, the heat caused the rot, which has cut yields.   Other crops are also hurting from the lack of moisture earlier.  Spinach and cilantro yields are down and prices are still only so-so.  The lack of markets are almost as distressing as the yield problems.  As the season winds down, we all need a big hit to pull us even or into the black.  Let's hope we get it.

Seedling anxiety

Watching the emerging seedlings from Sunday afternoon plantings it occurred to me that we have only about 6-8 weeks before the traditional first frost of the season.  Of course with the weather we have had this year we might be looking at an Election Day frost here in the North Country.  In which case the beets will be the size of baseballs and we'll be making borscht all winter.  I doubt the season will last that long, but who knows....

Late season plantings

ON the way into the office this morning I passed a flatbed trailer loaded with lettuce transplants.  If they go into the ground today, they will be harvested in mid to late September.  I don't know how much longer the commercial growers will keep transplanting, but we are now getting close to the traditional end of the season for this activity.  In my own garden, I will continue for another 2-3 weeks and will still have lettuce in mid October if we dodge the frosts.  I think some commericial growers are thinking along the same lines and we will probably see iceberg and romaine fields planted far later than normal.  Partly to make up for earlier damage and partly because with the unseasonably warm weather this year, the feeling is it will continue through Sept. and into October.  The reality is the large possiblity of a freak frost in the middle of an abnormally warm month, leaving the plants crippled but perhaps salvageable.  This is the new farming paradigm as we grapple with the threats and potential opportunities of climate change.

Getting there

Whoever said getting there is half the fun was less than half right.  Getting out of this drought situation in the garden and the North Country seems to be a series of half measures.  We got a little over an inch of rain on Thurs. and Friday and most years that would be plenty, but this is not most years.  On recently worked soil, the rain barely penetrated a couple of inches, but at least it kept most plants going.  More rain is predicted this week, so we may get back on track for a productive fall season.  Certainly my plantings on Sat. and Sunday would indicate my own feelings.  Spinach, beets, basil, cilantro, dill, radishes and lettuce transplants will keep things humming until frost.  The soil is very warm, so germination should not be a problem.  The bigger question for north country veg growers is will the markets begin to turn before September.  We have a long way to go, but the early markets are not encouraging.

Warm and Wet

It felt like a north country sauna this morning at 5:30 a.m.  After a 1/2 inch of rain on baked ground, the humidity is about 100%, but the plants are drinking it in and look quite a bit better than yesterday.  With two more days of the same predicted, we may get back to a more "normal" season.  There is still time for the late seedings of many veg crops to mature.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.   Late blight will be rearing its ugly head and many leaf diseases will be in play over the next few days.  But with the Hobson's choice between moisture and disease, the call must go to more rain.  The showers will also bring on the crops which have been lagging for the past few weeks.  Peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and the lettuces will accelerate as we head toward Sept.  Many growers will count on the next month to recoup losses due to drought.   We can only hope Mother Nature is more clement as we head into the Fall season.

probably too little

And too late.  The weather service is predicting 3 days of showers and up to 1.5 inches of rain.  I'll believe it when I see it.  My own take is we will get three days of drizzle and high humidity which will get all kinds of plant diseases going but add little to soil moisture.  I'm afraid I already see symptoms of late blight in the tomatoes, even with the hot, dry conditions.  The winter squash has already been hurt by lack of rainfall,and the corn is rapidly approaching that stage.  The late season garden is looking fair to poor at this point and the flea beetles are rampant.  Would someone please remind me why I do this every year.  Meanwhile, among the farmers who depend on farming for their livelihood, tipburn is appearing in the lettuce crops, peppers are beautiful, but worthless and the spinach and cilantro crops are withering in the heat.  A late season extending into October is probably the only salvation for many. 

Silly Shipping season

Or the season when shipping becomes silly?   As the veg season reaches a somewhat muted crescendo this year, the usual antics at shipping point cause heads to shake each morning.  Under pressure, people put the wrong product on trucks, forget to put seals or recorders, short ship other orders and in general make a hash of customer service.  We forget that the last word on each shipment is had by a tired guy on a forklift truck who is hungry and intent on getting out of Dodge before midnight and by the trucker, another tired individual looking forward to harrassment at the border and then a long night on the road.  It is amazing that more screwups don't happen.  Meanwhile on the home front, the dry weather continues and amazingly enough most of the crops are hanging on and seemingly waiting for the rain which will allow them to mature.  I have noticed the carrots taste more carroty than usual and the corn is sweeter.  I am hoping the tomatoes and melons follow suit.  Rain is in the forecast for Thurs-Sat., so relief is in sight.

Another hot one

Weekend that is.   Plus 90 degrees with a strong southwest wind.  Sat. and Sunday were the kind of days that make you question your committment to gardening.  I exhausted the well I use in the back garden, just trying to keep the tomatoes going and water the transplanted lettuce.  We caught a brief shower on Sunday evening, but it barely settled the dust.  Ironically, all around the North Country, there were areas picking up several inches of rain, so it is a spotty drought up here and I seem to be in the epicenter.

Sunshine on my mind

No rain predicted for at least another week.  The 60% chance of rain turned into about a 2 minute shower at dusk.  It's depressing to see months of hard work wilt under the relentless dry weather.  I keep planting and watering seedlings and transplants, but at a certain point, there is not enough water to bring the crop to fruition without rainfall.  I have seen dry weather on the NCR before, but never for this long.  Even the farmers with the ability to irrigate are finding it difficult to finish their lettuce crops.  Tipburn and puffy lettuce will be with us until it rains.  Meanwhile, the vast majority suffer with each new sunny day.  But not to worry, it will probably rain every day in October and November so we can make our average for the year.

Heading for the finish line

The first of August and most people, if they think of gardening at all are thinking there is still plenty of time to start plants for harvest....  Not so, especially in the North Country.  There is still time for planting a few hardy crops like spinach, beets, turnips, and some short timers like radishes, but for most crops, it's too late baby.  The tomato crop is poised to start producing, peppers are ready, but we need the rain that is projected for today and tomorrow, or things will start getting crazy.

Soils and water

Made a last planting of "red ace" beets last night on soil so dry it refused to absorb water when I irrigated it afterwards.  Finally after several sessions, it began to take in the water.  I guess that particular corner of the garden is somewhat sandy and many applications of compost have enabled it to hold water pretty well.  The extended dryness this summer sucked virtually all the moisture out of the top several inches of soil.  When this happens, the soil repels water until some portion of the organic matter becomes saturated.  That is one reason it is so hard to get a bale of dried peat moss to accept water initially.  Once the peat becomes soggy it holds huge amounts of water which enables it to support plant growth far longer than soils without that capacity.  After planting yesterday, I noticed the full moon, which should help with germination, at least according to the Farmer's Almanac.  I will post when I notice the first seedlings emerge, hopefully within the week.

Another, just like the others

Hot and dry.  Just the way we would ordinarily like it, but without irrigation, it is pretty hellish out there for plants.  Showers have been hit and miss in the North Country, and they have mostly missed Casa Monzeglio, so it has been a struggle to keep the garden growing.  Standing out there with a hose this morning watering lettuce transplants and trying to germinate spinach I was musing on the vagaries of weather and humans' reaction to it.  99% of the population consider a rainy day a cause for grousing, unless their lawn is brown.  In the cities, rain is even less welcome.  We have become a society divorced from nature and that estrangement will become more painful and obvious as the effects of climate change become unavoidable.  Unless and until we start making the connections among the freakish weather we are now experiencing and our own actions which are causing these phenomena, we will continue to elect politicians who are bought and paid for by the extraction industries which are causing the problems we face today.

Like toast

According to Bill McKibben, we are already ready for the butter and marmalade, at least as far as the climate is concerned.  If the big fossil fuel companies get their way and extract and burn all available reserves of gas, oil and coal, the planetary temperature could rise a whopping 11 degrees F.  In the article he wrote in Rolling Stone, McKibben did not describe the resulting climate change except to say it would be right in the tradition of apocalyptic science fiction.  I've read tons of that stuff and I hope for the sake of whatever future generations we have that it doesn't turn out that way.  Most of the sci-fi authors who write the end of the world scenarios imagine some outside agency is the cause of armageddon.  But as Walt Kelly's character Pogo famously (at least to my generation) says, "We have met the enemy and he is Us".  The slow creep of global warming is accelerating as we sit in the pot like the proverbial frog.  We will probably end up as fricasee before we realize the water has started to boil.

Under the weather gun

Tornadoes on Long Island?  The summer is definitely getting weird.  One of the few good things about living on L.I. was the reasonably clement weather.  I used to annoy people by saying that barring a hurricane, the weather on the island was, on average, the best on the east coast.  Usually not to hot or cold and of course anyplace where you can possibly play golf all year can't be all bad.  But as climate change, aka global warming takes hold, it looks like you might as well live in Kansas.  Brutal heat waves, possible tornadoes, torrential rain and severe drought.  Ugh.  Not to mention shoreline erosion.   I guess life on the NCR is not so bad after all.

Hail and Farewell

Another day, another grower done in by hail.  In this case a pepper an cuke grower who was bragging on his crop the other day.  Now he offers to send pictures of his hail damaged peppers in hopes we can find a market willing to take them.  And his cukes are a total loss.   His loss is another grower's gain as customers migrate  in their search for good product.  These types of weather events take place all the time, but it seems they are becoming more frequent and the damage more devastating, at least from my perspective.  Where growers would reminice about memories of terrible storms, now they occur on a yearly basis.  This may be a natural cycle of weather events, but we are reaching farther and farther back to try and find similar scenarios.  If we are getting into uncharted territory, we better have some backup plans for the future of agriculture, because the alternative is a hungry and rebellious population.

New Whine, same bottle

So, now we have had our rain, up to an inch last night.  Now comes the chorus of "It was too hard"  or "we need more", etc. As I have said before, farmers and gardeners are notoriously hard to please.  Personally, I was tickled to walk out this morning and see nearly an inch of rain standing in one of my buckets.  I could almost hear the plants growing in the garden, especially the weeds.  More rain predicted for later in the week, so by next Monday some of us may be on the other side of happy about moisture levels.  But for the moment, it is all good.

new phone blues

As a technologically challenged baby boomer, I dread the advancements most people crave.  In the abstract, new features sound good, but confronted by a new phone, I want to curl into the fetal position and suck my thumb.  These new touch screen gizmos may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but to me it is just another time sucker which I have to learn so I can keep up with the kool kidz.  The idea of camera, internet and e-mail access is seductive, but all it really means is I will be swiping the touch screen with dirty hands in the garden while trying to answer questions that are beyond me.  The 24/7 ethos promoted by these devices means you never really compartmentalize work and life beyond work.  My old mentor Jerry Shulman always said you work to live, not live to work.   I guess the next step is to implant the damn thing into your skull so you never miss a call.  What a world...

Acclimatization

I don't know if I spelled it correctly, but I know what it means.  Although 2012 is shaping up as the hottest and one of the driest on record,  and nothing like what the boomer generation grew up with, most people will simply turn up the AC and complain.  That is the major reason nothing is being done about climate change.  When I started dealing with growers in the North Country in the mid 80s,  hot weather was more than one day in a row of 80 degree plus temperatures.  Frost was a very real possibility anytime after labor day.  The end of the vegtable season was the 1st of October.  Since moving to the NCR  (North Country Riviera), I have seen the season extend by almost 2 weeks.  First frost can still come early, but is usually followed by above normal temps.  If this trend continues, this area will have a Long Island circa 1960 climate within the remainder of my lifetime.  While this is a boon for local growers, I shudder to think of the global consequences.  But to most of us, this new normal will quickly become the benchmark and memories of short growing seasons and long winters will be lost, along with the will to do anything to mitigate what will be a catastrophe to many fellow travelers on spaceship earth.

Hotter than...

Pick your metaphor, but the citizens of Indiana are living through what will undoubtedly be the hottest month there since records have been kept.  The climate change deniers will say it is part of the cycle of weather, but of course most of them will be dead when the hellish truth is witnessed by their children and grandchildren.  You can only hope there is a hell for people who would sell out future generations in the service of the extraction industries and the short term profits they crave.  Sadly, the majority of science challenged Americans are ignoring the data which point to the coming climate apocolypse with a "business as usual" attitude.  It is a lot easier to pooh-pooh predictions of future disasters than make the hard choices which will preserve the climate for future generations.  Ironically, those choices will probably lead to more and better economic growth, but not for the Koch brothers, et. al.  So it goes in our broken political system.

Drought and markets

So far only one brief shower today, but more predicted for later.  Farmer's in the North Country, at leaast for commodity crops are not pushing the panic button just yet, but if we don't get some significant rain soon yields will start to suffer.  Even the irrigated veg crops in the area are being stressed by the hot weather.  No matter how much water you pour on the brassicas, they don't like weeks of 90 degree weather.  Growth in the cabbage crops here has slowed to a crawl.  Some herbs like cilantro and dill are bolting at early stages of growth, so are not big enough to harvest for optimum yield.  A majority of states in the lower 48 are suffering drought conditions.  The weather authorities say it is the worst situation in 50 years.  Unfortunately, I can remember moving irrigation pipes several times a day when I was 10, but at that age I was more interested in playing baseball than worrying about how much rain was not falling.  It is a little different now.

All about the rain

Or lack of it.  Got a welcome couple of tenths on Sunday and more can reasonably be expected tomorrow.  I did not even mind the 3 hours of weeding that was essentially cancelled by the showers.  The purslane and pigweed are probably rerooting themselves as I write this.  I will gladly make the trade, as it was starting to look pretty bleak in the gardens, especially among the water hogs like the squash and corn.  If we can pick up a half inch in thundershowers tomorrow the crops will get back on track.  I'm sure the corn and soybean growers and the larger veg guys are feeling the same right now.  While we are nowhere near the drought conditions current on the great plains and the cornbelt, the difference between 100% yield and 80% is the difference between a good season and just keeping your head above water.  With 94% of the country experiencing some drought conditions, it has already been a long hot summer for growers.