Journal | March 14, 2017
Hardscrabble Journal
Weather Worries
It has started. The “worries” give a growing season its official beginning. Vine buds are still as tight as a drum, but sap has been flowing and temperatures for the next few nights are predicted to be in the teens. We saw something similar in 2014 (but temperatures were near 0F). We lost a lot of young vines that year and their replant replacements are just now old enough to produce their first crop. Not again, please! I don’t expect any major problems. Old vines should be fine, but I do worry about the baby vines.
Most non-farmers cannot understand how we can look at risk so calmly and almost nonchalantly. There certainly is a level of anxiety when it comes to unfortunate weather events, but we know that there is nothing we can do about it, except plan and be optimistic about the proverbial “next year”. Perhaps there is an historical context also in play. We are living under the same conditions as our farming ancestors, but it is not as “life and death” as it was for them. Existentialism is relative.
Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: March 14, 2017