Musings about the seasons, and RAMPS!!

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that many of the seasonal cultivated vegetables are appearing on the market considerably earlier than usual. Vidalia onions, for example. I've seldom seen them on the market earlier than, well, about now, but we've had them at the store for a couple of weeks already. South Carolina peaches, for another example. I'd say June 1 at the earliest under most circumstances, but here they are on display a couple of weeks before the end of May. They're a little hard yet, but they're gonna be good once they soften up a little. Local rhubarb and local asparagus, for two more. I didn't expect either one until around the end of May, but we've had them both for the last couple of weeks already

Makes me want to revise my internal timetable for things like local berries, cherries, grapes, peaches, and apples, the gourmet fruits of the Midwest. Is it global warming, or is my timetable totally kerfluffled to begin with? I don't know.

More postings on this as conditions warrant.

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We're had several shipments of Morels in the last couple of weeks (more or less on time), and local guys have brought in some really nice 'schrooms, as well. They're goooooood!!

But we've also had a couple of opportunities to buy Ramps, those pungent and completely delicious wild leeks found wild only in the East, usually in damp spots on the forest floor after canopy has mostly closed (they like both damp soil and shade). Which got me to thinking about the long-term viability of stripping the woods of foods like, well, Morels and Ramps.

As far as I know, Morels are (not yet) cultivated by anyone and and enough escape (so far) from mushroom hunters that they're not in any great danger. In the West, Morels seem to like disturbed areas in the woods, of which there are many, and in the East, seem to be associated with dead elms, of which there are (still) many. So (for the time being), I think they're safe and abundant.

But Ramps are a different case. They're members on the allium (onion) family, which means they flower on a tall stalk, take months to set and mature their seeds, and replant themselves in the immediate vicinity of the mother plant by falling from the stalk to the ground. Pull a Ramp (or worse, all the Ramps in a patch) and you may have destroyed the whole thing. My Ramp customers have noted in the past few years how they seem to be becoming less abundant and readily available (the Rangers at the Smoky Mountain National Park have noticed too, and banned Ramp hunting within the park beginning in 2002).

One result has been investigations into cultivating Ramps. One is "Cultivating Ramps: Wild Leeks of Appalachia," by Jeanine M. Davis and Jacqulyn Greenfield (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-449.html), a paper written in 2002 which details research into taking Ramps out of the wild and into the gardens of specialty growers.

Seems to me it would be a fairly small but potentially lucrative type of farming, although the advice seems to indicate a 40-acre wood of the right type might be the best place to farm. Not the traditonal kind of thing, not at all.

But I've wondered about it this spring. Hmmm! Wonder if I could buy a chunk of suitable woodland.....

Water water not everywhere

News item --

Farmers in (California’s) drought-stricken agricultural basin will finally get a meager supply of federal water to help irrigate crops this summer. Federal officials said storms in March allowed them to increase the amount of water sent to customers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Water districts that supply some of the nation’s largest farms in that region will receive 10 percent of the amount they are entitled to under government contracts.

Article in The New York Times, Associated Press, 4/22/09

California has been -- and still is -- the premier producer of the nation's fruits and vegetables, to the point where a water problem in California (and California has always had water problems -- see Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner circa 1986 for an exhaustive discussion of the problem) can create a situation where prices skyrocket at the nation's grocery stores.

Few Americans are likely to be seriously inconvenienced by this, for we remain a wealthy country and compared to most other places in the world, spend a shockingly low percentage of our income on food.

But I believe it illustrates a need that many recognize but few at the political level where things can be done, i.e. our national and state "leaders," wish to acknowledge. We as a nation (and let's include Canada and Mexico in this as well) are dependent upon California foodstuffs to a degree not dissimilar to the U.S. dependence upon Middle East oil. We as nations -- North America -- need to diversify our sources.

More in future blogs....

Why are so many organics encased in plastic?

It's been a puzzle to me for years why so many fresh foods -- fruits and veggies alike -- come in plastic containers of one sort or another. And especially why organic products are so often encased in plastic.

I was wondering about this a couple of days ago while putting up organic strawberries stuffed inside one-pound plastic boxes. I personally think plastic boxes are fine for shipping -- they do help prevent the dreaded squish effect of unpacked berries, after all -- but....

Aren't organics supposed to be a better alternative for the health of the planet, not to mention the health of the people? They cost more, sometimes a lot more, but isn't that the price we should be willing to pay for loving care bestowed by hand as opposed to care bestowed by chemicals? Doesn't such close companionship inside those plastic containers just encourage the mold and mildew to which tender organics are more susceptible owing to a lack of fungicides in their growth, ripening and shipping phases?

I now work for a store that slaps all its berries (except local berries) out for sale inside plastic -- and without careful examination every day, suffer the usual fate of plasticized produce, bruising and its companions rot and mold. This is the first place I've ever worked that didn't take the time to spill berries into molded paper pulp containers before offering them to customers -- and I go along with it because the truth is that it's easier, faster, and most importantly cheaper to toss out pre-packaged berries than it is to take the time to sort through them with the care and respect I believe they deserve. This probably makes me a sellout, but I need the job.

I think you as customers should start asking pointed questions about this practice, particularly as it concerns organics. Start with, Why should I buy an organic product in a plastic wrap when that plastic is likely produced using oil from the Middle East? And go from there.