And into the fire… or so it seems, as we exit a heat wave and they are forecasting another cloudless week for vacationers’ pleasure. For this market farmer, today has been an all-hands-on-deck day to ensure a good drenching of all the seedlings scheduled for planting over the next few days as well as seedlings transplanted to the field this past weekend.
Agriculture is impossible without water – but you already know that – and the next few weeks will be a challenge for farms across Quebec in dire need of water, a scarcer-than-ever resource. So we’ll be shifting from sprinkler systems, the SUVs of irrigation, to the much more efficient, but also much longer to install, drip tape systems. Ours will be a reasoned/rationed approach, the water El Dorado of July is already a distant memory…and to think that back then we were pining for just three continuous days of sunshine!
It’s not that we are unaccustomed to drought, but, in the havoc arising from climate change, it’s the unpredictability of it all that surprises us and complicates things. Fortunately, the plants in the field share none of my misgivings – instead, they continue to yield up their bounty, unabated. You’ll finally witness the solanacea trinity in your baskets, as well as watermelon, a thirst-quenching must…
En passant, we’re starting to run short on egg cartons, so we’ll be happy to relieve you of any excess boxes accumulating on your kitchen counters. The same goes for any spare berry boxes lingering in your kitchens.
Last but not least:
to those of you signed up for bread baskets, please recall that your bakers are back from their holidays this week. Meanwhile, we’re eager to meet up with you all again.