August is the new October

[woodburner]

Good. Stop eating bread and eat pasture fed animals. It will leave many with insufficient food, but then many get far too much, albeit of the wrong kind. The relief effort in East Africa typifies the stupidity and ignorance of the west. Relief supplies were flour, rice, sugar and cooking oil. No wonder people are malnourished. Relying on wheat will reach a tipping point one day.

[kenneal - lagger]

That type of relief is sent in part because of its energy density; small, easily storable and transportable amounts of food can be got to a place relatively quickly and stop people actually starving. Long term it might not be good for them but it stops them dying in the short term.

Sending the proper diet of balanced protein, fats and vegetables is too bulky to airfreight and cannot be easily stored for the long periods between famines.

[UndercoverElephant]

Ceps are a popular edible fungi.

Or in English..."Penny Buns".

[mikepepler]

I've noticed this too, there's all kinds of fungi popping up in the woods over the past week or two, and plenty of ripe blackberries as well. I hope winter doesn't come a month early too!

[fuzzy]

Looks a very good year for blackberries.

[UndercoverElephant]

Looks a very good year for blackberries.

Yes. And many other fruit, including apples and plums.

[kenneal - lagger]

Our plums got caught by a late frost and some of our apples and our apricot were too early for the bees. We'll pollinate the apricot by brush next year as a friend does every year.

[vtsnowedin]

I have had a very cool and rainy summer here in Vermont to the point that I totally gave up on the gardens. The apples and black berries on the other hand are as loaded as I have ever seen them. There are wild apples on every bush and tree( some that I didn't even realize were apple) to the point that limbs will break down from the weight before they are ripe.
Too much of a good thing but I do feel guilty putting a scrubby tree into a brush pile when it is loaded with small apples.

[emordnilap]

Quick fix, vt:

Make juice and freeze it or even chop and freeze the apples to make juice later. A serious juicer will cope with frozen apples.

[vtsnowedin]

Quick fix, vt:

Make juice and freeze it or even chop and freeze the apples to make juice later. A serious juicer will cope with frozen apples.

Oh there will be plenty to make cider with. I'm talking about perhaps a hundred trees with a couple of bushels of apples average on each one. Most will just end up as deer and turkey food as I don't need them.

[Potemkin Villager]

Autumn does seem to have arrived early this year. All the apple trees are loaded and the apples developed about a month ahead of normal.

[emordnilap]

Autumn does seem to have arrived early this year. All the apple trees are loaded and the apples developed about a month ahead of normal.

Same here.

We also have just-about-ready-to-pick peaches in the pt.

[emordnilap]

This beautiful morning I went out and grabbed a load of apples that had fallen and juiced them - it made better juice than anything I've ever bought in a bottle, it was like a meal.

The glorious weather (now kids are going back to school of course), combined with the apple juice, made me glad to be alive.

[clv101]

Warm, wet summer:

[adam2]

Local growers speak of an excellent apple crop.
Wheat did well if harvested rather early, those farmers who waited a bit for it to mature or dry in the field have suffered either from the energy cost of drying the crop, or even worse it being lost entirely.

The only local farmer whom I know well, raises beef cattle and seemed optimistic that the good grass growth will allow the animals to graze for much of the winter.

Another neighbour is a farm contractor, that is his main business is ploughing, sowing, fertilising, harvesting, and other tasks on other peoples land.
He has millions of pounds invested in plant and equipment and seemed optimistic when we met recently. Mobile grain dryers have been in great demand, he owns several.