Novel research question

[hrj]

For some general background information, I'm hoping to find something more or less like a "Farmer's Almanac" covering a region vaguely equivalent to the intersection of France/Switzerland/Italy (yes, I know, very different micro-climates) and relevant to crops and agricultural concerns of ca. 1800. The types of information I'm looking for are things like typical seasonal weather patterns, typical flowering/fruiting schedules for various plants, etc. Nothing has to be exactly "correct" (since one can always argue for micro-climate variation in my invented country), but this Californian needs a bit of a reality check on the timing of various pieces of background.

I've tried some online keyword searches and haven't yet come up with anything that has enough detail to be useful.

(Why yes, I'm spending Christmas morning working on my writing project. Breakfast has been consumed; pies are in the oven; the potatoes have been peeled and sliced, both white and sweet; and we're in that stage where everyone's pretending to be indifferent to the presents under the tree in order to draw out the suspense.)

Comments

[hrj.livejournal.com]

It's probably the sort of text I'm looking for, but I'm hoping for the specifics to be more in my target area. I've only just begun my search, so I'm not too worried yet. It affects some timeline details in the story line, but mostly ones that can be fixed by changing the seasonal/agricultural details rather than rearranging the plot.