The time of frost has arrived. Cold is begin to impose itself on the whole city.
The frost tends to fall just before dawn, very early in the morning. You need to bundle yourself up well at that time to resist the cold. It can make you sick in no time at all and make you stay home for several days to get better. You do not hope for that and definitely do not want it.
We are told that because of global warming the cold is arriving one month late this year. The rainy season was prolonged this year.
People are worried. The climate change will make changes in many other activities that are important to us, such as agriculture and cattle ranching. The phenomenon is impacting the whole world. Glaciers are disappearing. More severe floods are happening, along with prolonged drouths, and more.
The change in the arrival of frost will cause the seasons for harvests of fruit and vegetables to change as well. The time when they are at their peak and ready to harvest will be different than what we are used to.
Potatoes have been ready and waiting to be treated with frost to be made into papa helada, chuño, and moraya, different forms of freeze-processed potatoes. Everything is arriving late to market to be sold and enter into people’s diets.
Just as happens with many other products in our markets on which we depend for our traditional cooking, prices may rise because products may be scarcer than they used to be. People may not find them so easily and this may lead to a change in our diet.
If we are aware of all that is going on and up to date on the news, we can take actions to be ready for these changes as well as to work to stop global warming. In this way we can be prepared for the future and carry ourselves and our traditions onward.
