But it’s affecting tomatoes this time – Almost everyone in the US has some Irish blood, because due to the potato famine in the 19th century, thousands of Irish immigrated here. When Anne Strieber analyzed the hundreds of thousands of letters from experiencers that she read, she found that a large proportion of writers had Irish surnames. Now the potato blight has reached our shores and is affecting tomato plants.
Biologist Meg McGrath says, “Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the US.” One of the most visible early symptoms of the disease is brown spots on stems. They begin small and firm, then quickly enlarge, with white fungal growth developing under moist conditions that leads to a soft rot collapsing the stem. The tomatoes themselves then develop brown spots and petunias, which are closely related to tomatoes and potatoes, can also show these symptoms.
Will this be a summer with few flowers and no tomatoes? Let’s hope not, since these are both healing substances, and that’s something we all need.
Irish or not, we welcome you as subscribers because we’d love to chat with you every week! And we’d love to see you at the Dreamland Festival next year (where we always have lots of surprises in store for you). Be sure to bring along a good book to read on the plane!
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