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.