Crop

A bumper crop of vegetables and fruits at the Haddonfield Community Gardens is overflowing to the point that local residents plan to share with the local food bank. This week those with extra tomatoes, peppers, or squash can drop donations in bins that will be distributed immediately to those in need. "We have a real shortage of fresh produce," said Lydia Cipriani of the South Jersey Food Bank in Pennsauken. "We have refrigerated space and trucks to distribute it immediately, but there is always a shortage of fresh produce.

In layman's terms, it's a classic case of "Oops. " In asking a Bucks County judge to reconfigure the voting areas in the Pennsbury School District, a civic group accidentally submitted documents revealing that it was targeting members of the school board. An internal memo and a letter to the state association of teachers' unions zeroed in on board Vice President Simon Campbell, a staunch union critic. Provided "the opportunity to cut off the head of the snake by denying Campbell a seat to run for, why not go for the kill?"

KOHYON-RI, North Korea - North Korea dispatched soldiers to pour buckets of water on parched fields and South Korean officials scrambled to save a rare mollusk threatened by the heat as the worst dry spell in a century gripped the Korean peninsula. Parts of North Korea are experiencing the most severe drought since record keeping began nearly 105 years ago, meteorological officials in Pyongyang and Seoul said Tuesday. The protracted drought is heightening worries about North Korea's ability to feed its people.

Blueberries reign for many Hammonton-area farmers, but for sisters Sharon Figueroa and Elizabeth Beebe, raspberries rule. "They're sweet, juicy, and we love them," Figueroa, 45, says. "But it's a lot of sweat out here. " Under Thursday's scorching sun, Figueroa, her four boys, and six of their cousins were hand-picking the organically grown crop. At Brookeberry Farms, where drip-irrigated rows of Carolina-variety raspberry bushes fill five lush acres on Wiltseys Mill Road, it's not even 8 a.m. and the temperature is already north of 80. "They ripen fast when it's this hot," says Figueroa, adroitly overseeing her all-boy brigade of pickers, who range in age from 9 to 18. "I back-pick them.

SANT CLIMENT DE LLOBREGAT, Spain - Drop those cherries, you're under arrest. Crops and cops are converging along Spain's journey through economic crisis: People enduring hardship are stealing the earth's bounty from farmers to help get by from day to day. Police have added the patrolling of farmland - sometimes on horseback - to their list of daily tasks. Farmers in some areas are teaming up for nighttime patrols on their own. In villages near farming areas, several thousand paramilitary Civil Guards, regional and local police are even setting up checkpoints to sniff out not drugs or drunken drivers but stolen fruit or farming equipment, like copper wire used in irrigation systems.

The pink blossoms started showing up in March, long before their usual appearance. Now, at orchards across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, peaches are being harvested a full two to three weeks ahead of schedule. "People are excited about everything being early," said Eric Johnson, co-owner of Johnson's Corner Farm in Medford, where the harvest began Saturday. "Typically, we'd begin picking in the third week of June. " Not this year, not after the warmest first four months since the start of official temperature records in 1874.

Want to try your hand at mushroom cultivation? The promise is that this hardwood log will produce a crop of organic shiitakes every two months for three years. Shiitake Mushroom Log, $29.95 at Williams Sonoma in King of Prussia or at www.williamsonoma.com . — Maureen Fitzgerald

Wind-whipped fires kept firefighters busy in the Pennsylvania suburbs Monday. A blaze broke out at 10:40 a.m. at the Abrams Run apartment complex at 90 Bill Smith Blvd., King of Prussia, and quickly went to two alarms, said Montgomery County public safety director Tom Sullivan. The occupants of 18 apartment units were safely evacuated, and no first responders were injured. The Red Cross was on the scene in the early afternoon making arrangements for the evacuees to stay elsewhere.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan sees an epidemic of sorts sweeping across America's farmland. It has little to do with the usual challenges, such as drought, rising fuel and feed prices, or crop-eating pests. The country's farmers and ranchers are getting older and there are fewer people standing in line to take their place. New Mexico has the highest average age of farmers and ranchers of any state at nearly 60 years old, and neighboring Arizona and Texas aren't far behind.