in your area?
In upstate NY, we seem to be having better-than-average corn than in recent years--sweet and juicy.
According to the Albany Times Union, the New York Apple Association [I didn't know there was such a thing] is predicting a record harvest this fall.
However, unless I'm looking in the wrong places, I haven't found a decent tomato in a long time. I'm probably romanticizing about the past, but I can remember visiting my country cousins in the western Twin Cities [Shakopee] and eating a fresh tomato salad with basil--right out of the garden--that made me want to rip up the back yard, till up the grass, and put in rows of garden vegetables. Tha fact that I was living in an apartment with an asphalt back yard made that a little bit difficult...
One of my church members turned us on to Roxbury Farm, a community supported biodynamic farm in Columbia County, NY.
We grow vegetables, herbs, melons, and strawberries, for over 990 shareholders representing over 1000 families in four communities--Columbia County, the Capital Region, Westchester County and Manhattan--on 225 acres in Kinderhook, New York.
We were too late to sign up for a share for 2006-07, but we're going in half with our friends for 2007-08. As a sample of what a typical week's ration looks like, the August 13 delivery consists of:
Sweet Corn
Green Beans
Onions
Garlic
Banana Bill Peppers
Italia Peppers
Bell Peppers
Cukes
Juliet Tomatoes
Golden Raveo or
Beefsteak Tomatoes
Chard
Salad Mix
Basil
Cilantro
Fruit – Peaches
I know that for growers large and small, small-scale [like a hailstorm or late frost] as well as seasonal weather conditions [like an extended drought] can make or break a harvest and that crop diversity and crop rotation are key to keeping your land fertile. I'm just curious what the whims of Mother Nature are allowing to thrive in your area this year.
For long-time gardeners, do you notice any shift in the "zone" you think you're in? The Arbor Day Foundation has put out an animation that shows the changes in hardiness zones between 1990 and 2006. Approximately one-third of the area of the lower 48 states has warmed up enough such that it has increased at least one zone, while areas of the desert Southwest have cooled such that they have decreased at least one hardiness zone.
This means that while new types of plants previous too unhardy for a region can be introduced, current species are becoming unhardy and may drop out of the local biosphere, posing problems for plants and animals [and people!] that rely on the affected species.
I enjoyed the mango, plantain, and papaya I ate on trips to Cuba and Brazil--I'm not sure I can get used to them growing in my backyard...