The start of summer sure has been wet around here, driving Bryan and I inside to write blog posts, enter data, finalize maps, and plan for DREAM‘s first visit tomorrow. The weather has been a big roadblock for us this season. Saturated soils prevented us from preparing the garden as soon as we would have liked, and also from getting crucial crops like our squash in the ground at the ideal time. We’re still crossing our fingers that they will be ready for the dining hall in time for the Harvest Dinner in September, and they should be, but the rain has caused us more stress than we would like.
Weather difficulties are definitely just part of farming and of growing food, right along with pest damage and myriad other uncontrollable forces. Luckily, our livelihoods are not invested in our crops. For us, the weather is just an inconvenience, but for many farmers it has been devastating. Vermont has requested emergency aid for farms after record rainfall this spring. It means that a lot of farms got a late start on their crops, too, even if they aren’t in the flood zones.
We’re definitely feeling the effects of the weather here, but, as I am sure many of you are aware, the Mississippi basin is feeling it even more. This story by the New York Times approaches the issues in flooding and agriculture on many different levels. I know that we are thankful that we are not in such serious situations, and that no one we know has had to dig a $25,000 levee system to save their homes. Hopefully the rain doesn’t stick around too long, and provides all of the positive benefits to our garden instead of becoming too much and making the whole thing a wet, unproductive mess. My thoughts are with those that have suffered more serious damage already.
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