It's Getting Cold---for California

OK, I know we don't have to shovel anything like our friends and family Back East. But, 28F is still cold. Spring is right around the corner here and things are starting to wake up. The early fruit trees are starting to bloom and frost can wipe out a crop before you even get started. My almonds won't bloom for a few weeks yet, but you can bet we are going to keep our eyes on the weather from here on out.
   We got a little surprise rain in the last twenty four hours. The weather man said no more than a tenth of an inch. We had a quarter inch before I even went to bed last night. I wish I could get paid that much to be that wrong that often. No harm this time, but if I had know I would have put a little fertilizer on the wheat.

On the radio this week-

Fly Over Country. Really?

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright January 2013

                I don’t get offended easily, or often, but I gotta admit when some folks make snarky comments about ‘fly over’ country, it gets my goat.

            These are folks who are obsessed with what there is to ‘do’ in New York or LA. They seem more focused on play than work. They tend to have an opinion about everything, and their opinion of me and my fellow farmers is generally not that high.

            Since I don’t spend my days trying to impress people, that doesn’t bother me too much. But, I do have a couple of questions.

            These people who make fun of ‘fly over’ country probably generally think of themselves as good environmentalists. A lot of what they ‘fly over’ is natural open spaces. If they like nature that much, why make fun of it?

            The other question is- where do they think their food comes from? The local organic food co-op? It takes farmland, a lot of farmland, miles and miles of farmland- to grow the food for those big cities on the coasts.

            I am glad those cities are there. They are good customers for the things we grow on the farm and I like visiting them once in a while, but I don’t make fun of them.

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P