French carrots make later start

Winter storms removed some of the plastic from the French crops, which has delayed the season’s start. This has been compounded by unseasonably cold temperatures.

Is it June yet?: Gardeners try host of methods to protect against frost, freeze

SOUTH BEND — Another round of frost and freeze warnings had Michiana gardeners rushing to protect their young plants late Sunday.

Last week, the temperature dropped into the 30s long enough for some damage. Local producers at a South Bend open house for the Purple Porch Food Co-op on Wednesday reported frost damage to strawberries in the North Liberty area, for example.

But early Monday, low temps in the 30s — possibly even dips into the 20s — had gardeners and growers looking for plant-protecting solutions again, as the National Weather Service warned of a cold snap that can kill young vegetables and budding fruit.

Record cold may hit the mountains tonight | CITIZEN-TIMES.com | Asheville Citizen-Times

Typically, mountain farmers consider themselves to be out of the woods, frost-wise, after May 15. So a potential frost warning is worrisome, to say the least.

“We've never had to deal with one this late, and we've never had to think about it,” said grower Amanda Sizemore, who runs a farm in the Cane Creek area of southern Buncombe County with her husband, Jeremy. “The frost is what'll get us.”

They just finished planting two acres of tomatoes last week, and she said they can't do much to protect them from severe cold.

Don’t be unkind to climate change deniers – they fulfill an important function « Robert Kyriakides’s Weblog

What the climate change deniers usually fail to discuss or take account of are four matters which are critical to the whole argument:-

1. Climate change is a serious risk, form the known science available to us. We fasten our seat belts when we get into a car, even though the risk of a car crash is small. Money spent on understanding climate change is spent at least in risk mitigation. If it turns out to be wasted, so much the better.
2. Burning fossil fuel (a major cause of emissions) is downright unhealthy. If the research enables us all to breathe cleaner air, the world will be a better place
3. Using nuclear fuel has long term risks because we cannot guarantee that we can and will safely isolate the spent nuclear material while it decays.
4. The fossil fuels are finite, and if climate change theory creates a more widespread use of clean renewable energy, that can only be a good thing.