Are we promised rain? I went to that place this week, I said the unsayable, “We need rain”. There is always the fear here, that once the rain comes it will never leave, and to be fair we have had plenty of experiences with rain never leaving.
We have been out with our water tanker this week as many of our crops are stunted. Broccoli, kale, celery, cabbage and more are stunted they need water. It is not close to the major drought of 2018 when we had to dig down 18 inches to find moisture, but it is starting to be a problem.
These extended periods of dry weather are amazing the blue sky does us all a world of good, but 3-4 weeks without rain, that is unusual, or is it? It seems to me that these extended dry spells followed or proceeded by intense rain are not so unusual anymore. Since 2018 we have had more and more weeks of intense dry or drought conditions than I remember in the prior ten years.
Right now, our farm more resembles a farm in southern France or Spain, dusty dry and stunted.
The climate is warming, it is undeniable, man-made greenhouse gases are responsible. Weather patterns are changing rapidly.
It’s hard to grasp the magnitude of climate change, we don’t see the glaciers or the ice caps melting, the wild-fires in Europe last year or those in Canada right not are removed from our comfortable corner of the world.
Our direct experience of climate change is relatively benign, but that too is changing. Earlier this year the lack of tomatoes and peppers due to extreme weather, affected us, but it was more of a minor irritation that a real problem. But what happens when these climate stresses increase, and they start to affect our food production?
We have such potential for diversification in our food production here and yet the market is undermining our horticultural industry at a time when it couldn’t be more important to support it.
It may be selfish, but we need to be able to grow our food and we need to support local food growers. One critical way to reduce our burden on this planet is to think mindfully about what we eat, and where and how it was grown. Eat more plants, locally and organically grown.
We can only do what we can do. We can only do what we have the time energy and money to do. But how we spend that time, energy and money makes a huge difference for the better. Our business was started to guarantee that what comes to your door in one of our boxes has as far as we can control, been grown or produced, ethically, sustainably, and organically. We don’t always get it right, but those principles are one thing WE WILL NEVER COMPROMISE ON.
Thank you to everybody who responded to our post and e-mail last week. The number of responses and the level of support was amazing, uplifting and encouraging and made a difference so thank you, I read them all and if you have any thoughts on the above again we would love to hear them.
Thank you for your support.
Kenneth