Agriculture in northern climes means rushing like crazy to get everything planted in the field before the summer heat. Quebec seasons being what they are, the planting window is narrow indeed. Consider this spring: after an unseasonably hot May, we are now facing an unusually rainy early June. Neither is optimal for farmers looking to work in their fields and plant their seedlings. When it rains too much, machines compact the soil; when it rains too little, for weeks on end, nothing grows, and root systems wither. So we do double planting duty, planting thousands of plants in record time. Beyond the window, there’s no point in planting – given the short Quebec summer, many vegetables simply won’t make it to maturity. While agriculture is, generally speaking, a marathon – spring planting up North is more of a 100-metre dash.