Broccoli and Climate Change

How can one look at broccoli and ponder the complexity of global climate change? Well, in graduate school you can. The first photo was taken around the same time last year, just before harvest. Beautiful, the dark green leaves and broccoli "flower" pushing up. Imagine this same plant, 10 weeks earlier was the size of your typical transplant, now with a 4 ft. wingspan 3ft. tall.

Now back to my point and the other picture. Just a 10 days ago, a beautiful south Appalachian Autumn typically with highs in the mid-60s and overnight lows in the mid-30s was in full swing, perfect for growing fall broccoli. Well not this year, the first frost of the year went down to the mid-20s! Any home gardener or farmer can tell you that no plant can acclimatize to such extremes. Notice the leaf damage and slow head development. Oh and by the way, yesterday and today's highs were 39 degrees. Not much will grow under those conditions.


Now maybe I am just bitter because my Masters thesis is sitting in a field at the mercy of nature. Just imagine being a farmer anywhere in the world and having to subject your livelihood to such risk. Even my professor, who was been growing vegetables in these parts for 30 plus years, said he has never seen such a change. I would take a weather narrative over any scientific data to suggest that the climate is in a state of flux.

For now, I can just wait hoping the temperatures will not dip into the teens. Maybe I can count of climate change to swing the temperatures back to the 60s so I can go in for the harvest and the ensuing feast.