The patio furniture is out, the screen porch is open for the season, the riding mower has been serviced, and the raised beds have been planted and are already producing veggies. It must be summer! After this year’s proper winter, I am relishing the prospect of a few months of warm weather. Frankly, I cannot imagine being anywhere but the Berkshires from, say, May to October. It’s what we wait for, isn’t it?

It’s hard to believe that this is my third Summer issue letter. Last year, I told you (with joy and optimism) that we had started our honey bee adventure with a single hive. This year, I am sorry to tell you that we were miserable failures! When we opened our hive this spring, we discovered that our bees had absconded and that wasps had stolen all our honey. We made some rookie mistakes and learned some important lessons about how precarious it can be to raise and grow, well, anything. Combine human error with the vagaries of nature and you’re on a slippery slope. Thank goodness our livelihood was not at risk.

That’s not the case for our farmers. They cope with human error and the vagaries of nature every growing season and their livelihoods are constantly imperiled. And this year, there’s another risk factor: USDA cuts that have decreased the market for what farmers grow and endangered the improvement projects they may have already begun to invest in. The impact: less income for farmers, and a dearth of affordable, fresh food for the people who need it most. To learn more, please read Alison Arnett’s excellent story, Broken Promises, which our friends at Edible Boston were kind enough to share with us. We hope it makes you as angry as it did us!

And then, maybe go calm down in the kitchen. Lee Buttala gives us a trio of zucchini recipes that will help you keep up with summer’s most prolific vegetable; Tu Le of STATE Food + Drink, our featured chef, serves up gorgeous (and easy!) summer rolls; Katy Sparks’s panzanella, which puts Berkshire Mountain Bakery’s ciabatta to work with juicy tomatoes and cukes, is perfect for a Tanglewood picnic; and Miriam Rubin’s delicious peach cake will become a go-to summer dessert. Then put your feet up with a Blackberry Basil Bramble, a summer cocktail created especially for us by our friends at Berkshire Wine Jelly.

Also in this issue: your go-to guide to frozen treats in the Berkshires, researched and illustrated by the supremely talented Charmaine Koehler-Lodge, who also created our farmers market map. Charmaine’s sister, Cheryl Koehler, has been designing Edible Berkshires since I first took on this life-changing and rewarding project, and she has been instrumental in helping me make the magazine not only informative but beautiful. Artistic talent must be genetic!

In our feature well, Elisa Bildner profiles Ari and Noah Meyerowitz of Sproutman, a business that was under my radar and possibly yours, too. These committed young men are carrying on their father’s legacy and cultivating a business that helps consumers grow their own food for maximum nutrition (and delight!). We also take a close look at Woodlife Ranch, another business you may not be aware of. It’s tucked away on 1,100 acres in South Williamstown and is entrepreneur Mike Patten’s home, but over the past few years, he’s expanded his farm operation to include Woodlife Farm Market in nearby New Lebanon, New York. As a resident of Canaan, just down the road, I’ve watched Patten and his team transform that property from a sleepy farm stand (albeit with the very best sweet corn!) into a beautiful and vibrant community gathering place. We tell you how he did it.

So, back to the bees. After our crushing disappointment, we decided to double down. We set up a second hive, bought two new nucs (a nucleus colony that arrives with 20,000 or so honey bees and a queen), and are approaching our little enterprise a bit differently, having learned from our mistakes. We are hopeful. Folks, the world is filled with wasps that will take every opportunity to steal your honey with impunity. Don’t stand for it. Learn, read, ask the right questions, then double down and tend your colony with love and knowledge. And then do it again. And again. We’re rooting for you!

Happy Summer!