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Local Food Journey

When Natural Disasters Strike

Posted by Tony Ricci on 08/29 at 10:06 AM

Asian Pears. Photo Credit Gradually Greener.

The week wouldn’t be complete without a natural disaster. Last week we hit the jackpot with two – an earthquake and a hurricane – although it was our eastern neighbors who were most affected.

I didn’t feel the tremor that everyone else seems to have experienced. I was driving at the time and probably mistook any shimmy in the steering wheel for a bad tire.

My cynical side was kicking in while reading about all the local accounts of foundation cracks and window rattlings. I was getting the sense that people were feeling a little left out of the first major seismic event in their lifetime and everyone was scrambling to find evidence that they were affected by it. But then the other day our water pump started acting up. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but apparently the earth sashayed enough on our property to shake the walls of the well loose and cover the pump in a grave of sediment. 

Now I can claim without hyperbole that the quake really did hit us. Of course, this is nothing compared to the self imposed disasters I seem to bring on myself on a daily basis while working on the farm. But running over irrigation just doesn’t have the same histrionic impact as a good old fashioned earthquake.

Did you feel the tremor last week?

New at Green Heron Farm This Week

Concord Grapes: The season is just starting, and we have a bumper crop.

Asian Pears: Some of these are a little dimpled, but they’re still delicious. We have two sizes because I never got aroung to thinning the trees.