As I head out to the garden to harvest the peppers before they're lost to the hard freeze that's predicted, I'm glad to hear that someone is doing well in spite of the funny weather we've had.
Heavy spring rains kept farmers (and that includes small scale farmers like those of us with vegetable gardens) out of the fields until later than usual. A drive through Iowa in May showed corn not anywhere near as high as it usually was at that time of year.
Then there was the cool weather. Global warming was a hard sell this season, with temperatures consistently lower than years past and the lovely vegetable plants refusing to grow until they had some nice, warm days.
Ask anyone around here and they'll tell you how miserable the tomato crop was. Fruit not as sweet as usual, ripening much later and the plants not producing much in the end.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service is predicting a bumper crop in corn and soybeans, even though plenty of farmers are worried that the hard freeze will hit before their late-planted corn can fully mature.
So it might be the second largest corn crop in recorded history. Or it might not. It all depends on what actually comes into the silos.
Wouldn't want to be a commodities trader in weather times like these.
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