It's Dec. in New England. Yesterday's high temp was near 60 degrees F. Today's low temp? 18 degrees F.
From over 4 weeks with no measurable precipitation to over 2 inches of rain in 24 hours.
This is what climate change looks like, even in places well away from the coast.
Here is where much MA food is grown. We've already lost all stone fruit crops twice in 8 years w/extreme weather.
A local farmer's entire cranberry crop wiped out by insects this year.
8 years ago when I was planning to expand our homestead orchard, the landscape architect warned me to pick fruit trees that would thrive in a full zone warmer than our current one.
I thought that felt extreme.
Now I worry that it isn't enough.
Even planning for warmer climate isn't enough. It's the extremes that will bite us.
Drought to flood.
Brutal cold snaps.
Extended heat waves.
Growing food is a chancy business in the best circumstances.
Many of our neighbors are commercial farmers. They have been investing in hoop & greenhouses as a way to buffer climate change.
Our house came with a root cellar.
It takes longer into the fall for it to stay consistently cold enough for our root crops.
The potatoes are already starting to sprout because of this. I need to note which varieties aren't storing well for next year's garden planning.
There may be a time where the root cellar is no longer usable.
Our society has gotten so divorced from where & how its food is grown. Commercial pressure to have everything available year round pushes farmers to make choices that are unsustainable.
Which only accelerates the problems.
If you have the ability & option to buy from local family farmers, please do! They are a critical piece of food security & local supply chains. You will be getting local, in season food that has less packaging, fewer inputs, fewer transport miles.
There's not a lot individuals can do to force corporations that make up big Ag to change & they need to change to have any effect on climate issues.
But it's not a bad thing to decrease the amount of plastic packaging & out of season food we buy.
And maybe consumer pressure can shift corporate practice.
If nothing else, your local, in season food will taste better.
@LJ Yuuuup. I keep telling our (non-farming) neighbors that this is what happens when we get these late warm autumns - there's no transition and it goes straight from barely having had a frost to down in the teens Fahrenheit (maybe -7 to -10 C).
We've done hoops and high tunnels for years but even there, the plants really need time to adjust to the colder temperatures and you lose production even if you don't lose the crops outright.
LJ
Josh Grams