Nothing.

I don't know about how it is where you live - but is anyone else seeing this when they drive around their nearby farm country:

There should be crops growing, not weeds.

That's right... all we see right now is nothing. Nothing planted. Nothing growing. Nothing done. Zero. Zip. Nada. Folks, this is a little unnerving. We drove a little further and this is what we saw:

More nothing.

More nothing. Most of the fields aren't even plowed because of our crazy weather this spring. Its been too wet for the farmers to get into the fields and get their land prepared for planting. I talked to an old timer last weekend who said he's never seen anything like it in his 35 years of farming.

By now most of the commercial crops - soybeans and corn - should be in the ground and the land as far as you can see should be green. Not covered with corn stubble from last year or just filled with weeds.

We are also rapidly approaching the cut off date when farmers who have "crop insurance" will just call the whole season a loss. If they can't get the crops planted then they won't be ready for harvest in the fall. At this point an early frost would be crippling.

The good news is that we are looking at a week of mostly dry and hot conditions - but that's not true for the northern part of the state - or the rest of the Mid-West. With the destructive weather - flooding and tornados - this could be a tricky summer for food production. I'm not talking about fruits and vegetables, I'm talking about the commercial crops that work their way into almost every item in the grocery store.

If you don't think that a failed soybean or corn crop will affect you, think again. I'm not saying there will be blood in the streets if folks can't get their soda pop or their Doritos.... but much of these unplanted crops go for livestock feed. So that cheap burger meat you get at the store won't be cheap for long. Or worse than sky-high prices, what happens when food production is forced out of the country? Do you really want food production to be brought to you by folks who use lead paint in kids toys and who poison their own medicines?

I love that Maple View Farms has so much good info on their site about this - be sure to check it out. And then go over and read what Gene Logsdon has to say - he's an old timer with a lot of wisdom.

So what to do? My pal D over at Spring Hill Farms has been talking about this for a while. He rightly says to "Do Something!" Anyone can plant a garden or join a CSa, And if you've been thinking about getting some clucks, now is a great time to take the plunge. And you might want to do some prepping. You don't have to get all crazy in a "build a bunker" kind of way. But in the stock market there is a thing called "dollar cost averaging" - you can use this same principal for buying your basics. Just a little a time and start when costs are lower rather than waiting until everything is higher to lower your overall costs.

If you still don't think this has anything to do with you... well. Check out Veggie PAK's latest post on what happened with their part of the world was without power after a storm. I love that he took pix of the refrigerated section of the grocery store and how it was emptied in just 24 to 48 hours. Those stores just aren't as full as you think they are and if supply is disrupted, well. I hope you've at least got a jar of peanut butter.

I'm not saying there will be a mass panic - and, God willing, the farmers will get their crops in and we can all unclench a little... but I am saying to take a minute and look around and see whats going on.

What's going on in your neck of the woods? Are your farmers in the fields? Still rained out? Crops growing? What do you see - nothing? Or a little something? Got pix? Send me a link in the comments and I'll post it here so we can get an on the ground view of the crop situation.