SideCar: Various and Sundry Topics of Note

So in other news, my hummingbird feeder has been up for almost two months, and zero hummingbirds, which I'm taking quite personally.

The camera keeps catching bees and hornets at the feeder, and I get excited when there's alert on my phone, and it's actually a wasp.

With the exception of the 10 days of rain and the week of 100-degree weather, we have had a really nice spring, like the kind of spring that spring is supposed to be.

So the garden is looking pretty good.

However, I hear tell all around the Mid-Atlantic from Pennsylvania down to Virginia that the apple and peach season was decimated by the late frost we all had.

Strawberry season has ended early here because of all that rain we had a week ago, but there were some very small peaches at the farmers market this week.

Also at the market, some hothouse tomatoes, some very early blueberries.

My guess is they came from North Carolina or, you know, maybe coastal Virginia right at the border.

Some baby squashes.

Still lots and lots of leafy greens, and everything looks really lush, and the farmers markets are still packed.

Lots of the markets here are in the SNAP and WIC system and offel- offer double benefits, and some have, uh, CSA, community-sustained agriculture, uh, like boxes every two weeks, which is very affordable.

In addition, most of the markets here are gleaned each week by a food rescue organization, and the last markets of each month have a section where you can buy and donate produce that goes to the closest food pantry to that market.

The line at the Saturday food bank at the church we go by on our way to Saturday's market is just getting longer and longer.

I worry about the people in our community and their ability to feed their families and pay their bills.

Almost 40,000 jobs have been lost in Northern Virginia since last fall.

People can pay their bills on their credit cards for only so long.

Okay.