Okay, so it's kinda hot out

Sunday, 5:14 pm

By Kate

Jun

08

2008

Wasn’t it just a month ago that I was still bitterly complaining about the weather? Yes, I was. It was so cold, I thought I’d never thaw out. I remember, though, that I made the remark that when it got hot out, someone oughta smack me upside the head if I dared complain about hot weather. If it ever arrived—I was skeptical at the time.

Wellll. It’s hot today. It was hot yesterday. It will be even hotter tomorrow. We’re parked at about 94.7° at the moment. That’s down a couple of degrees from earlier this afternoon. There is no sea breeze or breeze of any kind. It’s humid. It’s late July weather in early June.

I’m not really complaining about it. Not yet. My house is still cool inside—it’ll take a few more days of hot weather to warm it up. No need even for fans today. Maybe tomorrow.

But, I stopped at the farmer’s market earlier this afternoon and they were complaining. Loudly. The season had a rough start because it was so cold with a late killing frost. And now. Now that the lettuce is starting to look pretty good, we have a string of exceptionally hot and sunny days. As anyone who grows lettuce knows, hot days make the lettuce want to bolt. This is not good. It turns the lettuce bitter and nasty tasting. This is definitely not something that should be happening a week or two after Memorial Day. The heat isn’t doing the strawberries much good either. We have a very brief strawberry season, and, this year, it has coincided pretty exactly with the heat wave. When the strawberries turn ripe, it’s a panic around there trying to keep up. They Taste So Good. People just can’t get enough of them. With this heat, however, they seem to be rotting rather quickly after they’re picked. The customers complain. They cart their strawberries home and by the next morning, they’re already turning to to mush. The late spring/early summer crops don’t adapt well to extreme heat. Not much anyone can do about it.

And rain? Well, we haven’t had much. It threatens to rain every other day, but nothing much happens. With this heat and dry soil, the farmers aren’t off to a good start. Except for the corn, which, at this rate, should be shoulder high by July 4th. If it rains a little bit between now and then. And that’s a whole different situation than the one faced by the farmers in the mid-west where, I understand, a good portion of the corn crop is drowning in the relentless rain and standing water.

The farmers are no strangers to the vicissitude of weather. But this year is a strange one so far and the plants only have so much flexibility. It’s worrisome. Well, actually, it’s horrible for the farmers who can’t really do anything but watch their crops fail for one weather reason or another. The weather gods are not being kind.