I went to our local farmer’s market this morning, and chatted to a few of the regular famers there as I was shopping for fruit and vegetables. They’re all very worried at the moment, as two swarms of locusts have crossed the Sinai desert from Egypt and landed in the Israeli south, with its fields of produce and lush hothouses. The beasts are a menace, destroying whole fields in minutes, and getting rid of them won’t be an easy task. Right now everyone’s watching the wind, to see if it will carry more locusts across the border or not.
I just remembered it now, while sipping this tea – the fragility of crops, the hardship that farmers face, the pride that they take in their produce, and how we miss so much of that aspect of food growing when we buy a shrink wrapped tin in a supermarket. That’s part of why I appreciate sites like Verdant Tea, who highlight and expose some of that hidden aspect of consuming.
