The Northeast summer rainstorms have brought our haymaking to a halt - one day of sunshine and it is off to the clouds again and again. Hay is not only important as a source of income for our farm, but it is integral to keeping cattle and horses in these parts. When the snow comes there is nothing else for these animals to eat except hay. I am feeling real stressed right now at the thought of these animals lacking for food this winter. I had the unfortunate exposure just last week to a pony who had been starved by some real cruel people, and the animal had to be put down by it's new owners. Starvation is a scary thing. With the recession on, people are abandoning horses regularly because they can't afford the upkeep any longer. Add to that the shortage of hay because of this summer of rain, and we could end up with a very bad situation. It is unfortunate that in our capitalist society people with hay will likely up the price for those without. Paying through the nose for items where supply is less than demand really takes advantage of a bad situation. We saw that with the price of oil and the rising profits of oil companies during the same period.
Second to our hay shortage in the Northeast is the tomato late blight that has swept across here. We grow thousands of heirloom tomato plants with wonderful harvests every year, so to have this crop fail is another surprise setback. Just last week we saw the first signs of it devastate healthy plants more rapidly than anything I've ever seen. We are not likely to get any tomatoes. Since this is one of the loveliest of fruits, it is hard to believe still. And yet even with all the greenhouse and labor costs and my own 2 months of nonstop work into it, the thousands of stakes pounded into the ground, and resulting bursitis - even with this major setback it is nothing in the scheme of things. No one will starve because we don't have tomatoes this year. It's not the same as the potato famine because we have so much else to eat these days. But certainly we will remember the summer of 2009 without the sweat flavor of our pomme amore!
