Tue Feb 14 2012
Are you ready to grow your vegetable garden?
Old Man Winter, which gave the portion of the United States east of the Mississippi one of its snowiest patches of weather in years, is now going to take a bite out of our pocketbooks.
Florida, where winter and early spring produce is grown, reportedly has lost upwards of 70 percent of the normal crop. A 25-pound box of tomatoes that a year ago shipped for $6.50 now is fetching $30. Also destroyed were fields of sweet corn, beans and squash, not to mention those delicious Florida oranges displayed so appealingly in our groceries.
Blame "El Nino," the weather forecasters tell us. That's the Pacific current that has such an effect on the weather in North America. This past winter it delivered a snowy punch to the eastern half of the nation, but left the western portion unusually dry and warm. Though not as severe, the pattern is one the recalls two terrible winters in the late 1970s when Ohio and the rest of the country east of the Mississippi was pelted by blizzards and buried in snow while the West was left high and dry.
The squeeze on tomatoes and the scarcity of Florida produce will likely boost prices at groceries and in restaurants until produce grown elsewhere starts arriving.
In the meantime, those of us in Northeastern Ohio have another line of defense, namely our own gardens, which can be grown from seeds if started in pots and nurtured inside until warmer weather arrives. And, as any good backyard gardener knows, a handful of tomato plants -- like the ubiquitous zucchini -- can produce more than enough fresh vegetables for the average household.
In wartime, they are called "Victory Gardens." That's not a bad name, actually, for gardens grown this year as their harvesting can beat inflated produce prices and keep the vegetables that nutritionists tell us make up the most important part of our diets affordable.
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