April Showers

Neil's yard is looking lovely these days, even with the crazy crazy weather we have been having. For the first time ever in the history of keeping weather records, April was colder than March up here. The way to early warm brought out so many blossoms, and then the cold of April has been devastating for the local farmers. As much as 90% of the apple, cherry and peach crops could be loss this year.

"New York is a major agricultural producer, ranking among the top five states for agricultural products such as dairy, apples, cherries, cabbage, potatoes, onions, maple syrup and many others. The state is the largest producer of cabbage in the U.S. The state has about a quarter of its land in farms and produced US$3.4 billion in agricultural products in 2001. The south shore of Lake Ontario provides the right mix of soils and microclimate for many apple, cherry, plum, pear and peach orchards. Apples are also grown in the Hudson Valley and near Lake Champlain."

story from whec.com