Of strawberries and sinkholes

While Britain has been going through its big snow, we in Florida are tucking into our usual crop of super-sweet, locally-grown strawberries. But some folks are paying a high price for these strawberries.

I’m glad to say that the local grocery stores have plenty of the berries on their shelves even if we have had a cold – by Florida’s standards – month of January.

Temperatures in many inland parts, typically where farming if done, have dropped below freezing on lots of nights causing farmers to turn on the sprinklers, which causes a coat of ice to form on the fruit which protects them from the cold.

The water may have saved the crops but its use has caused a knock-on effect that because of the state’s unusual geological make-up is wreaking havoc here and there.

Sinkholes are appearing everywhere.

All of a sudden a car can be motoring down the street and it will disappear into a hole that suddenly appears. A hole can appear under a house and suddenly the walls start cracking or worse.

According to the University of Florida the state has more sinkholes that any other in the US. Not surprisingly the state’s boosters don’t like to talk too much about sinkholes as their existence can hardly be said to be a selling point.



The reason for the sinkholes in that underground Florida is a limestone mass. Over time rainwater cuts through the limestone and forms underground lakes which fill up.

Now here’s the kicker. When there is a massive increase in sprinkler usage the water from those underground lakes flows away to replenish the aquifer. This leaves nothing to holdup the top soil and whoops, down comes whatever was sitting above.

Just a few days ago sinkholes closed three lanes of the massively busy Tampa to Orlando freeway for four days. The Southwest Florida Water Management District is investigating reports of 45 sinkholes it received in the Dover and Plant City area, where the strawberries are grown.

Local residents want the farmers to chip in for the damages they have caused. The chances of that happening are close to zero. Pass the cream please.

Going crackers

OK that’s it. Twelfth Night has come and gone so the Christmas tree has to be de-decorated (I just made that word up), the lights around the house have to be pulled down and the nativity scene packed away for another year.

Lots of my neighbours don’t wait for Twelfth Night. Some just wait for December 26th before they dump their trees at the end of the path for collection. I don’t really understand this undue haste but it is likely to do with the fact that they have had the tree for nearly a month and are sick of the sight of it… and the pine needles dropping all over the floor.

In America Christmas trees go on sale the last week of November, right after Thanksgiving, which is waaaaaaay too early for a traditionalist like me. We try and buy our tree the weekend before Christmas, which brings with it an element of chance. We are either left with the dregs of the harvest or we can pick up a bargain.

This year it was bargain time. I can only presume that with the economy being in a bad shape people hadn’t the cash for a throw-away item like a Christmas tree. It’s a shame they didn’t visit the myriad of tree vendors that set up locally because if they had they would have found prices about half of last year’s. Christmas crackers for the uninitiated

Sadly the money we saved on the tree I blew on Christmas Crackers. I don’t know who in America buys crackers apart from ex-Pats but they are now on sale at places like Pier 1. We cracked them on Christmas Day and wore the obligatory paper hat, read the unfunny jokes and tried to do something with the minute plastic puzzle or toy. I had a “bah humbug” moment on discovering I had ‘won’ a dinosaur, which did nothing. I vowed I wouldn’t waste my cash next year. We shall see.