New York Times

My reply to email  from a customer who had been waiting for more Musik garlic and to his comment about my blog entry concerning paying for digital access to the New York Times.

We did not plant any Musik this year as there was a nematode, as described by Cornell University's Diseases of Garlic Factsheet, that invaded much of the seed garlic in the Northeastern United States & Canada; the only clean seed (free of all diseases including the nematode) we could find to plant within a reasonably priced shipping distance was a German White porcelain (like a Musik) and a Ukranian Red rocambole.  The nematode problem was so pervasive that the Saugerties Garlic Festival prohibited wholesale sales last September and the SGF is a major market for seed garlic in the NE; this was the 1st sales prohibition in the 17 years of the festival's existence.

As far as the New York Times is concerned, it is not an either/or situation as you describe: the Times will cease to exist as we know it and readers paying for it will not make up for revenues lost in advertising.  As you know, there is a redefinition of  news media going on brought on by the Internet: no longer is media a one-to-many activity (NYT > public, as in a traditional print newspaper), it is a many-to-many activity (public > public, like The Huffington Post and other blogging websites).  This redefinition will only accelerate leaving the Gray Lady sick and getting sicker. 

But the Times will be free again (I've read estimates of  within 10 months) as it attempts to recapture readership lost by charging for digital subscriptions; but the death throes will howl on longer than if the Times, that venerable broadsheet, were a publicly managed company, rather than being family managed as it is now, because blood (tradition) is thicker and stickier and blinder than red or black ink.

Other than that, what are you reading in French?

Eugene

                                                                                     Photo by Tony Cenicola/New York Times

Florence Fabricant reviews our garlic, "Robust Garlic, Fresh and Juicy" in her column Food Stuff that appears in the Dining & Wine section of  the New York Times, August 3, 2010.

See Garlic Cultivation to understand how we grew it and why our garlic is so unique.

Sold Out of all varieties.  Thank you.  We're planting more soon for next year.