A different dilemma for locavores

I've spent the last 4 hours at a meeting convened by Together for a Livable Planet. I'm pleased to report that there's hope for the future. Plus, on the way home, I avoided running down a flock of wild turkey almost grown poults and saw three sandhill cranes in one of the fields I drove past. If this year's wet Spring and Summer is a precursor of seasons to come, how will farmers grow our food in soggy soils? That's one of the topics we talked about. Also, how can we scale up the local producers of real food (not commodity crops) into an actual food system that helps supply local school systems also? The complication is that we can't be sure what our "new normal" growing seasons weather and conditions will be like, other than they won't be much like the past.

rutabaga from a Winter CSA

Photo by J. Harrington

Should we look for a system that links farmers with farmers markets, community supported agriculture [CSA], school systems and online local food sources, or is a different organization of producers and consumers a better solution? Who's trying to figure this our? Is there and effective research and development source for small farmers who produce meet and 'taters? How secure are our local food systems? Stay tuned!

September Tomatoes

By Karina Borowicz

The whiskey stink of rot has settled

in the garden, and a burst of fruit flies rises 

when I touch the dying tomato plants. 

Still, the claws of tiny yellow blossoms

flail in the air as I pull the vines up by the roots 

and toss them in the compost. 

It feels cruel. Something in me isn’t ready

to let go of summer so easily. To destroy

what I’ve carefully cultivated all these months. 

Those pale flowers might still have time to fruit. 

My great-grandmother sang with the girls of her village 

as they pulled the flax. Songs so old

and so tied to the season that the very sound

seemed to turn the weather.

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