There's Frost on the Tomato

Florida has just finished the coldest December in history. It had two cold snaps. The first one was sort of a warm up for the second one. It only got just below freezing. The tomato field down the block from us got hit just a little. They had crews out just before the frost picking anything that was close to being ripe. They even sprayed the plants with some chemical that was supposed to help them withstand the cold.

But one week later came the real freeze, it got down to 26 F and the tomatoes didn't like it at all. The guy at the field says the ones under the leaves are probably still good to pick especially if there are any green leaves left.

These fields are really big. This picture is one direction but the opposite direction goes just as far and then goes around a corner and goes on forever. Prices for tomatoes are going up.

The locals wrap all their temperature sensitive plants with cloth - we did also but missed a couple on the first freeze - they'll survive.

The good news is that the La Nina that brought the Arctic air down to us means that the rest of the winter is going to be much warmer than normal. Yea.