I was listening to CBC's Quirks and Quarks the other day and they were discussing the effects of climate change on farmers. They noted that most farmers don't find the long-term trends of climate change challenging. This is probably in part because long-term effects happen slowly and are easier to adapt to over the course of the farm's life. However, it is the climate variability that comes with climate change that most farmers find challenging. Climate variability can include things such as greater swings in temperatures and precipitation over a shorter period of time as well as '10 year storms' becoming '5 year storms'.
This reflects my experience farming for the last 8 years. And you can probably imagine what has made me think about this this month. On May 11th, we had snow and temperatures of -7 degrees. By May 26th, we had temperatures of +28 degrees (not to mention the humidex). Tomorrow, we are expected to have a low of +3 degrees and possible frost. Spring is always a variable time but swings in temperature such as these can certainly make things challenging! I spend a lot of time uncovering and covering crops to try to keep them just at their perfect temperature!
We have rhubarb making an appearance in shares this week, and while there isn't enough for everyone to get some, those that rated it 'I Love It!' should see it. And for future weeks there will be some in the swap bin for others to try. At the moment, our rhubarb patch is relatively small, however this spring Rob planted me 100 new rhubarb plants so in the next year or two we should be swimming in rhubarb!
I also wanted to mention that if you ever notice an item missing in your share, please don't hesitate to let me know so that I can compensate you for this. For most perishable items I will simply apply a credit to your account for the item missed. For non-perishable items such as honey I will add to the following week's share. My apologies if this happens to anyone - we have a pretty great system for packing the shares but things can still get missed. The most likely items to be missed are add-ons or items you've doubled up on.
