According to the National Weather Service drought monitoring data, Berrien County, MI has been too dry. Actually, we've been in a fairly serious drought. Non irrigated crops have suffered, and some crops have been destroyed.
But this morning about 3:00AM, I was awakened by a sound that had become a memory too distant to immediately recognize, like some 50's tunes. Rain. Light, steady, rain.
I got up, walked out onto the deck, and sure enough, a pretty nice shower seemed to have set in. It lasted about an hour like that. Just slow and steady, the kind that will sink in and not run off.
Then as I left for work about 5:15AM, it started really coming down! We must have received an inch or slightly more in those two hours, and we needed it. Still, fruit quality is almost unbelievable this year. Oh sure, fruit size is off, owing to the dry conditions, but man, the intensity of flavor and the sweetness of the fruit is truly vintage.
If you're reading this and are close enough to Berrien County to make a drive here, do not leave without peaches. Blueberries too are incredibly sweet this year, and intensely flavored.
And now that the soil has been recharged, let it once again be dry, dry, dry....
It's what makes for vintage fruit years. The last one was 2005, and it's great to have two so close together.
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