Dan de Carteret at La Mare Vineyards said the unusually cold weather, while delaying the likely harvesting time for grapes and apples, would probably keep diseases at bay.

BBC: Jersey Royal potato crop 'delayed by cold weather'

GOSHEN, New York (CNN) -- It's onion harvesting time in upstate Orange County, New York, where Chris Pawelski, like so many other farmers, has been hit hard by the drought.

CNN: farmer plows

"Most often they used to harvest in June, but after listening on the radio they ... harvest their crops in May, which was very important because whenever there's a late time of harvesting, there's a loss of products, " says Chimuvi.

CNN: Radio plants seeds of success for struggling farmers

Farmers then use chemicals more sparingly and make more money by harvesting crops at the right time.

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Presumably this is also a good time to exit the related business of harvesting timber for use in home building.

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For most investors, loss harvesting means weeding out a few disappointments from their portfolios in order to claim a write-off at tax time.

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But December is a bad time for those trades because stocks with a weak year are under particular pressure from tax-loss harvesting at the end of the year.

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