Occupy Wall Street

This has absolutely nothing to do with produce (I think), but everything to do with the future of the country we live in and love.  It is starting to feel like the sleeping giant aka, the 99% is starting to wake up.  Knowledgeable people have been saying for years that Wall Street and the banking industry have basically taken over the US and have been directing our affairs in ways that are harmful to most of us.  The endless wars, the American Empire, and the squandering of our resources in the attempt to dominate the world have started to impact the way of life our generation took for granted, even during the 60s and the Vietnam war.  As the jobs moved offshore, the manufacturing base was stripped down and the wellspring of good middle class employment shriveled up.  The pain started in the Rust Belt, but now the south and the west are feeling it now.  Even the industrialization of agriculture gutted towns in the midwest.  Where once 10 farms thrived and created dozens of other jobs in support industries, now one megafarm owned by a corporation exists.  It buys little from surrounding communities and remits profits to a far away headquarters.   I hope the little fire started by the wall st. protestors becomes a cleansing blaze which will restore a more human economy which benefits more than just 1 % of the population.

American farm labor

Methinks we are still a long way from a Grapes of Wrath scenario where Americans will line up to take stoop labor farm jobs even for $10.50/hr.  That's the going rate for foreign guest workers under the government's H2A program.  In order to qualify for the program, farmers must prove they have tried, but failed to find Americans willing to do the work.  As a NYT article today stated, one grower in Colorado found out within 6 hours that a majority of the Americans he hired walked off the job, saying it was too difficult.  He was able to scramble and get a crew of Mexicans to finish the season, but his view is that Americans have become soft and lazy.  I do that kind of work as a hobby and I can tell you there are times I question my choice of leisure activity.  I certainly would not recommend it as a career at the wages our society deems as its worth.  I do think if a living wage was paid for this kind of work there would be more people applying than there are jobs available.  However, that would require Americans to pay more for food.  Which would leave less money to spend on useless junk from China.  Which would help reduce our trade deficit.  What's wrong with this solution to the problem?  Probably that it won't happen in our lifetimes.

Vegsickles

Looks like tonight and tomorrow night will be the swan song for any tender, unprotected plants.  We should be near freezing tonight, but tomorrow the weather service is predicting mid 20s, so even on the North Country Riviera at Casa Monzeglio we will be in perilous territory.  That means a Chinese fire drill tonight as I pick all the winter squash and try to cover as much of the lettuce and flowers as possible.  I have a brand new roll of reemay cloth, so we will see how much I can cover before midnight.  My only consolation is the imminent demise of the galinsoga population.  I've sweated and slaved for nearly 6 months on this little patch of ground, and as much as I will be glad of a few months off, I will probably be itching to get my hands dirty by the middle of March.

Junk food and schools

An article in the NYT today spends a thousand words telling us what we already know, namely that potato chips will outsell peeled carrots by about 5 to 1.  Forget the yogurt and apples in the same machine as the  kids say they can get all they want at home.  (In a middle class neighborhood on Long Island, anyway).  The point is our culture spends far more advertising money on junk food than on healthy alternatives.  Plus the science says the salt and grease in the junk trips the brain's pleasure centers.  Gnawing on a carrot doesn't seem to produce the same effect.  Meanwhile, the advertising budget for Doritos and Pepsi is probably greater than the entire revenue of most produce companies.   Denmark recently started to tax fatty foods in a effort, similar to the cigarette tax, to defray the cost to society that these foods incur.  We will need a sea change in the way Americans think before such a program comes to pass here.  In the meantime, as the CSNY anthem says, "Teach your children well".

The Big One

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

Foggy, Rainy, Monday

Mix any of the above three with your favorite expletive and you have an idea of the way the day is starting.  We are staggering to the finish line of the growing season up here, and the weather is trying to deal a knockout punch.  Another 1 1/2 of rain between Sat. and this morning, customers trying to hedge their produce bets by buying from California and general lack of demand have made it difficult to move even the shrunken inventories of veg to market.  Rejections for minor problems add to the fun. 

Lost Weekend

Made the farmer's market just before the sky opened up on Saturday, but the rainy weather probably kept the traffic down.  It's a shame most people don't realize the best produce of the season, and certainly the most variety comes at the end.  Tomatoes, corn and zucchini are done, but everything else is still coming on.  Winter squash, collards, kale, carrots, beets, spinach are all at their peak now.  Of course if we keep getting a couple of inches of rain every other day it will not last, but carpe diem.  No frost in the forecast through the middle of the month, so there is still basil in the garden.  Time to make pesto.  Anyway, that was the high point of the weekend.  Mrs. Monzeglio and I saw the Taming of the Shrew last night.  One of Shakespeare's more misogynistic efforts if it is taken at face value.  A lazy, rainy Sunday, and it's back to Produce World on Monday.