Is it "buy the rumor and sell the fact," or the other way around?
   
  While it's always prudent to know how all these world-wide factors and sympathetic crops shape up and impact other crops, including honey, I don't think it's time to fetch the captain his brown pants.
   
  We also had a killing freeze in the upper midwest this past spring.  Every fruiting crop was wiped out.  No apples, no peaches, no strawberries.  Wheat and oats were damaged, hay was froze out, even the pecan trees got hit.  Lots of doom and gloom. I confess I was concerned enough to fetch the captain his red shirt.
   
  As the growing season panned out, the quantity of honey in SE Missouri was not appreciably affected.  It did change the quality, however.  Much of my honey this year was darker and very little clover to be seen.  Yet my honey crop was larger than ever.
   
  I think the perspective to hold is to recognize the multiple "windows" of blooms during the growing season.  Our freeze slammed shut one window and limited the next window.  But as the season progresses, other plants bloom during their normal time.  Then when the news reported the horrible drought, the reality was our nectar flow was over anyway and it ha little impact upon us.  
   
  I'm all for being informed, but I question the fear-mongering that passes for our daily news.  The glass maybe half-full, but I still got a glass!
   
  Grant
  Jackson, MO



       
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