Authors: Natalie Hoidal , Shane Bugeja Our food systems team has been on the road this week touring farms across north central Minnesota to make new connections. In general, crops are ahead of schedule this year. We had our first sweet tango apples (about two weeks early near Little Falls) and saw plenty of winter squash ripening early. For the most part, peoples' crops are doing quite well despite the dry summer. It seems like in our third year of drought most growers have caught up, either by investing in more irrigation infrastructure or by adapting farm plans to accommodate less water availability. This update includes discussion of how heat and drought impact curing and potassium availability, as well as two types of Alternaria causing problems for fall crops. A hot labor day Forecasts are showing temperatures potentially reaching 100 degrees this weekend in Southern Minnesota, and low to mid 90s in the north. Thankfully, forecasts are projecting lower humidity than the last...