With warming days and arcing sun, my potatoes have burst into botanical song. But how long? I must have planted these things in a moment of denial. Potatoes are water-intensive. So are my two small patches of apartment lawn. I am already realizing that something has to give. All this greenery can't survive the drought.
Or maybe it can...and that is the real problem. We are in a water crisis, yet I don't see any signs of crisis. Whether or not water automatically arrives with my restaurant meal...well, this issue seems like small potatoes. And I can count on small potatoes without enough water. This fact has spurred me into action.
Actually, a low level of community organizing. Being surrounded by congenial apartment neighbors, this isn't all that hard. People will happily dump a little graywater on my potatoes...particularly if they become "our potatoes." And if everyone pitches in with water recycling, the least they can get is part of the crop. As for "graywater," what is it exactly? I forget. Or maybe what I remember is no longer up-to-date. We all need some educating.
The drought is going to test our ability to cooperate. It already is. Highway signs in the Central Valley proclaim that the drought is a federal plot. Who gets water, who conserves water...which crops and industries survive...and who profits from the water shortage? There's a lot of pain to spread around. There's also a great opportunity to pull together.
