Wednesday, July 29, 2009

July 29, 2009

YIKES!  We hit a new all-time record here in the Seattle area.  Our previous record temperature was 100 hit as recently as 1994.  I personally recall playing tennis all day long in high school only to find out it hit 99, but that was when I was insane. I'm better now, hehe.

Well, today we shattered that record.  It hit 103 officially today, though it was as high as 104 or 105 depending where you were.  Again, with almost no homes having AC, and less than half having sufficient fans, it was not pretty.  Poor Logan, he had soccer for 3 hours again today.  Thankfully they played it safe with tons of water breaks and spent most of the time in the shade doing drills.  Whew.

I must say though, despite the swealtering heat that's melting my garden and bolting my spring crops, I found enough to harvest for one deliscious salad.

So far (knock on wood), my container lettuce mix has held up to the heat and did some cut and cut again rather than pulling leaves from the outside.  Then I harvested my first Bloody Butcher tomatoes.  Of course I had to pull a big fat carrot, but I was surprise to find this while harvesting.



No, not the sun burnt cauliflower, but the pickling cuke next to it.  The first cucumber of the season!

Yum!  I was so happy, I picked it and brought all my harvest in to be prepped at 6 am.  Here's what I came up with.



The verdict?  I may have waited too long to harvest the ripe tomatoes. They were a bit squishy, and the flavor was a bit off to me.  That and I can't say I'm thrilled with one or two of the lettuces.  Maybe they were bitter from starting to bolt, not sure.  The carrot was great though, and the whole thing was very edible, sans dressing, hehe.  While my good buddy EG likes a little lettuce with his dressing, I like a few cranraisins thrown in for some sweetness.  Yummy!

Of course I watered deeply today before work, but when I got home in 100 degree heat, the lettuce was wilting.  I sprayed it with water hoping to rehydrate them.  Tomorrow I'll throw them in shad to help save them.  Maybe I'll plant a few squares of fall lettuce now in case the containers die out prematurely.  Oh, and I had to fill my tomato SWCs twice today, hehe, poor monster plants, wilting despite my best attempts.  Ah well, it's gotta cool down soon.

I hope you're staying cool. As of my writing at 9 pm, the outside temp has officially dropped below the inside temp at 89/91, so I'll start the fans blowing cooler air into the house.  Take care and...

Enjoy your garden!

7 comments:

  1. I am jealous of the cuke! Mine are all teeny tiny ones at the moment - promises of things to come but no delivery yet!

    It was soo hot in the house this evening. I had to pick green beans tonight and it was much cooler doing that chore outside than anything I could have been doing inside.

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  2. Hope your heatwave passes soon. What a weird weather year this has been. Tonight it's 46* at my house and we're forecast a high of 64 tomorrow.

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  3. Hey Sinf: Sry it's taken so long for me to read, but you know how hot it's been and I've been avoiding the inside for a while now, lol. BER is caused by bad calcium absorption and is typically a symptom of uneven watering. Carolyn Male posted a really nice info on it on the tomato site at gw. The kicker is that I'm pretty sure we shouldn't have this problem b/c of the swc's. I think I've had a few b/c of our erradic rains at the beginning of the season. I can tell it's only on the older tomatoes. What do you think about that thesis?

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  4. Yeah cucumber!! Booo heat. That's not okay. I'm so sorry for you guys. It has to be terrible inside the house.

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  5. No ac at your house, either, huh? Maybe i'll have to install a central unit for some of my good friends in the Pacific Northwest someday.

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  6. Shoot that's hot!!! I wonder if that heat wave will be coming down this way to Wyoming.

    Congratulations on your very first cuke of the season!!! I pulled 2 red beets yesterday!!! They were firsts too!

    Sending you some of this cool refreshing air... this week continues to be unseasonally cool with temps in the 70's. Just check our weather... looks like we're heading into a heat wave next week! I guess I'd better enjoy the cool now!

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  7. Too freakin' hot, that's for sure. I live in the seattle area to AVOID this kind of weather! Our lettuce is bolting like it's racing the Kentucky derby. At least our cukes and tomatoes are happy. :)

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