Do Your Part: Support Local growers

The local harvest is getting underway and within weeks there will be a wide variety of local homegrown foods in season.

There are a numbers of reasons to purchase from local growers, either at the farm, roadside stands or at the Farmer's Market's. Fresh vegetables and fruits are the most nutritious, that is a no-brainer.

Buying locally helps the local economy, the money stays in the local community. It provides the income for many of our neighbors and friends and helps pay the wages of hired workers.

Locally grown fruits and vegetables are better for the environment, locally and worldwide (previous post). For more information and facts, Why Buying from Local Growers Benefits the Environment

HeliumWhy buying from local growers benefits the environment

Blogs I am following:

On Your Way to the Top

New York's Southern Tier

Urban Veggie Garden Blog

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Gasps of a Dying Culture as Storm Clouds Gather.

No more snow? You gotta be kidding! Well, that is one of the conclusion of a July 15th report completed by Penn State. The study was mandated by the PA Climate Change Act 70 of 2008.

Basically, no matter what we do today is not going to matter for the next half century. What's done is done. It is going to take the next fifty years or so of environmentally good practices and efforts against global warming, to undo the damage.

The study predicts shortened, rainy winters with little or no snowfall. (did I hear clapping and screaming?) A longer and hotter growing season (temperatures will rise 3 to 7 degrees F) with more extreme weather conditions. Did I hear culture shock?

The report is not very good news for northwestern Pennsylvania and the small towns. It's not a very good report for nearby states as well since global warming doesn't give a hoot about artificial political boundaries.

Many rural economies depend on winter recreation: ice fishing, snowmobiles, skiing, hunting and trapping. The forest is important and many species will not tolerate the upcoming changes. The report could signal some major lumbering changes in the next two or three decades. Trout fishing depends on cold waters and the closest anyone will come to one will be mounted on a wall. And I have to wonder about the impact on the whitetail deer and other species. What are your thoughts?

Sure a longer growing season sounds fine. But the reverse is a problem. Warmer weather and more moist conditions will lead to new and more aggressive pests and other diseases in the woodlands and on the farm. What about maple syrup production?

Yup, agreed, it is hard to peer into next week, let alone, the next century. But there are some disturbing indicators. So I figured this post will be accompanied by two winter scenes for posterity, friend Mike checking out a buck rub and the snow covered trail. The sooner we start changing some things, the better. But it is going to take a long time. As it stands now, global warming will wipe out a culture for the next generation or so. What we know and do today is changing, the culture of today will no longer exist.

Update: On the subject of diseases and pests, Late Tomato Blight continues to spread and has been discovered in at least 17 Pennsylvania counties, along the east coast as far north as Montreal and as far west as Ohio. For more information click here and here. Take action now to help manage and control it's spread.

Blueberries are in season and there are many places to pick your own or locally produced berries can be found at a number of locations and farm markets. Blueberry are excellent for health.

Blogs which I am following, are good reading and informative are:

On Your Way to the Top

New York's Southern Tier

Urban Veggie Garden

Solokoyote is my pen name at another writing site,Hubpages. Check out some of the articles I have done there if you want. Thanks.

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