There are advantages and disadvantages to being a farmer/grower in S. Florida. Advantage: we can plant and grow edibles all year long. Disadvantage: we can plant and grow edibles all year long, which include the brutal months of hot and humid weather. If you are an obsessed grower like me, you understand there are only a few things that will keep you from taking advantage of the near 365 days of garden tending available to us. A few for me are thunderstorms, hurricanes, extreme exhaustion, influential friends who make me start my day with mimosas, or as today’s case, a severe body rash following a day of clearing poison ivy to make room for more edibles.

Sometimes, when I’m out there planting, and sweating from head to toe, I envy the northern growers who get to look forward to months of snow, forced months of relaxation by the fire, sipping hot chocolate, flipping through seed catalogs, and dreaming about the first days of spring. They have it so good I think, until I remember the pictures of last year’s blizzards. Why I may get northern climate envy on occasion, I am mostly grateful to live where I do, because if one can get past the sun blazing down, the humidity dripping off the body, and the intense pest and disease pressure that these things bring with them, you will quickly discover there is plenty to enjoy, learn, grow, and harvest this time of year, even if you are mentally counting the days until the cooler weather returns.