“Here’s
a note on the kitchen counter,” Mary said. “It says ‘Bit of a crisis, am
working late. Love you, John.’”
“Doesn’t
sound good,” Minnie said.
They
unpacked their things and Minnie started the laundry. An hour later John
trudged in. He kissed Minnie, “Welcome home,” and threw himself into the nearest
chair. “What a day.”
He smelled like smoke and appeared completely exhausted.
“There’s
a mold spreading through greenhouse number one. We had to rip everything up
and burn the plants before it spreads. Farmers are
really worried. This mold is springing up across the county. If it gets into
the outdoor crops...who knows what will happen.”
“What
about the other three greenhouses?”
“So
far, so good, but we don’t know what’s causing this. If we did we could put in
new soil and replant the greenhouse. That would cut our losses. But that might
be pointless if we don’t know what’s causing this thing.”
The
next day John discovered mold in a second greenhouse and by the end of the week
he had lost his entire spring planting.
Market
gardeners and nurseries in the area were all dealing with the same
problem. Inspectors from the Ministry of Agriculture investigated and weren't coming up with solutions. They examined the strain of mold and found it to be a
mutation of a rather harmless strain they had encountered in years past. This
new mold attached itself to just about any form of flora, turning it black
within hours.
Worse
came to worse and that spring just about every crop in the region was affected.
Corn, wheat, barley, even the apple trees turned black.
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