Harvest Delights and Future Worries
Harvest time provided delightful veggies this year. There
were cauliflowers bigger than dinner plates, broccoli heads that challenged
them, zucchini from the size of small cucumbers to large gourds, red beets and
yellow beets, tomatoes of all sizes, colors, and shapes.
We are fortunate to have access to local farms where I live.
The farmer’s markets abound with produce and the supermarkets try to offer as
much local fare as the season will allow. Organic is becoming more available
and when on sale will often equal the price of non-organic goods.
Lots of cities celebrate the fall harvest with festivals,
antique auto events, arts and crafts fairs, 5k races, swim meets, wine
tastings, apple picking, hay rides, you name it. It is a time to appreciate the
labor that went into producing the food we place on our tables and to
acknowledge the change of seasons.
But let’s not forget how fragile the land that is the basis
of this bounty can be. The recent Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, besides
being so deadly and destructive, played pick-up sticks with the coconut palms,
laying them flat, their roots in the air. In 2012, the corn crop, which was
headed toward a bumper year, was caught in a heat wave that greatly reduced its
potential and with less corn to sell, prices rose.
It’s a reminder to not take it all for granted. We need to
tend to
the land in a more nurturing way and to be more responsible about how
we affect the climate so that we may have many more fall harvests to celebrate.
First Lady Michelle Obama celebrates the harvest, too:
A look at what may be limiting our future celebrations:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/science/earth/warning-on-global-food-supply.html?_r=0
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