i found myself on the west end ( opposite my usual haunts on the east ) of a misty bean field behind the beg box stores this morning...besides the still lingering question of why so many fields are planted in soybeans this season when soybean prices settled at $328.02 ( per index muundi ) per metric ton which is down from $431.00 in may...there could be issues here...
despite the mist i could still clearly see the dead heads of "native plants" that were killed by herbicide when the field was sprayed...
what caught my attention was the fact that the over-spray from the herbicide had killed some of the plants in the berm of the field which abuts a drainage ditch that runs under the road from the adjoining field...so how much agricultural chemical runoff finds its way into that ditch...which, given the way water behaves, ends up in some larger body of water or in the water table...my municipality utilizes municipal wells for the bulk of our water ( which is why it is so overloaded with chlorine )... a visible index of the fact that there is agricultural runoff almost everywhere...how much atrazine are we drinking? the annual water quality report makes no mention of atrazine...because there is none or we don't test for it? just asking....
in spite of the over-spray ( and the tariffs ) there are plenty of bean pods and more blooms on the plants...looks like a good harvest in store...what to do with them after is a fair question at the moment...
the bean vines on the poles and in the maize and teosinte in my back yard have finally begun to bloom in earnest...which is good news in my opinion...
some of those blooms have fulfilled their function as i have nascent beans popping up along the vines as well...another part of lunch from the yard soon enough as the beans, spuds, and jerusalem artichokes come to fruition...
while i was stumbling around the margins of the field i happened on what may be high bush wild blueberries...i am uncertain of that identification at the moment and may have to call in technical support to be certain...if that is indeed what we have i will be harvesting some for seed to start in the yard...the birds will be happy in no one else...
what i do hope the birds steer clear of is the ripening grapes in the catalpa tree...harvest those soon enough...__________________addendum...i have been poling around some university extension services and the leaves and twigs look very similar as are the berry clusters, but the berries themselves seem wrong...got some ideas about berry shape and the shrubs bark...will update after my next visit.
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