cunderwood4

When the weather gets cold, one thing growers sometimes do is go to conferences. The other day, I went up to St. Cloud to see what was up with the Minnesota Fruit and Vegetable Growers. The most interesting talk for me was listening to a bunch of apple growers talk about climate change. Now understand this: You are pretty careful to avoid the terms “climate change” or “global warming” when you talk to groups of farmers, because some of them think the whole thing is a big conspiracy so Al Gore can heat his Nashville mansion or so some university climate scientists can get bigger research grants and sell more books. They think global warming is a political question, not a science question.

This month has been an amazing one for gleaning. My neighbors have offered me so many apples, grapes, various veggies and even eggs, that I seem to have neglected my own gardens.

This past April, when most gardens still looked like dirt, we were already enjoying green salads picked from our yard.

The other day, I learned a new four-letter word from a naturalist: “lawn.” In her view, our yards contain an invasive species that has destroyed wetlands, wasted natural resources through frequent