Time: A little earlier than last
Madison Time: 4:43 PM
Hello from Rostov-on-Don. Sasha and I boarded the train in Moscow yesterday afternoon, and arrived early this morning, about 670 miles later, to the provincial capital of Rostov and Russia's tenth largest city. We had shared a sleeper room with a Russian vacuum cleaner salesman who seemed rather perplexed to be sharing a room with an American who didn't eat meat and who was so excited by all of the agricultural fields we were passing. I suppose it might seem odd if an American found a Russian tourist so excited to see a corn field. But here we were, finally in the part of the world I have been reading about for the past couple of years!
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| Sasha reading the latest news about global yield gaps in our fancy sleeper room! |
Quickly after leaving Moscow, we passed by stretches of small and clustered dachas, or rural homes owned by city dwellers that are often visited on weekends and used to grow vegetables. As we continued, Sasha pointed out the vast amounts of agricultural land abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he has been documenting using remote sensing data.
A couple hours after departing the city, we began to pass evidence of the fires that have ravaged Russia this summer due to the prolonged drought and extreme heat that have plagued the region.
Tracks of forest with empty forest floors and blackened tree trunks - evidence of a recent fire.
As we headed south, we noticed the soils turning darker as we approached the Black Earth Region - a region renowned for its fertile Chernozem soils, which are correlated with the region's significance as a breadbasket. Cultivated lands also became more frequent.
When the sun set, we continued to work on the interviews that we will carry out with the wheat farmers of Rostov. We spent the day getting settled in the city and renting a car that we will use to drive to the countryside. Tomorrow we will begin the day with a visit to the Rostov Ministry of Agriculture where we will continue obtaining contact information for interview participants. Until next time!
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| View of the sun setting over Russian agricultural lands from the sleeper room. |
Great blog, Rachel! Thanks for all the photos - they are beautiful! Interesting about the "charged" nature of weather-related questions (from your entry yesterday). Good luck with your interviews - keep up the interesting posts and have a good trip!
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