Saturday, July 23, 2011

Hot enough?

Of the 3 farmers' markets that we attend, I don't have a favourite - except maybe Georgetown on Saturday.
And that's really because it's on Saturday - last day of the week, last market before Sunday, our day off.
And after this very hot week, Sunday cannot come fast enough!

How hot was it?
Check out this shot of our van dash with temperature displayed ...


This photo was taken Thursday afternoon on our way home from North York market - while we were parked on the QEW for close to an hour waiting for a truck fire to be extinguished (the driver was not injured).
Actually that was the 2nd truck fire we saw this past week. Coming home from East York on Tuesday, we saw the box of a pick up truck in flames, with the panicked driver standing by, talking frantically on his cell phone.

Back on the farm this week, everything was wilting - plants, animals & humans. We all started work early & ended early to try and beat the heat. But we managed to get the essential work completed.
Along with the intense heat are the drying winds & lack of rain. The crops could really use some moisture - a long, slow, all night rain would be ideal!
Despite the drought things are still looking okay. This is the time when we can see the benefits of our soil management/improvement program. Our use of mulch (both hay & straw) to conserve moisture and build the organic matter in the soil along with manure means our soils are better able to hold the water and nourish the vegetables & trees.

Here are some photos of the farm taken just a few minutes ago...

 zucchini & tomatoes

sweet peppers & eggplant

 cherry tomatoes - the curling leaves indicate the plants are beginning to suffer from lack of water.

beans

We continue to be amazed at how well the vegetables look. (This is all without any irrigation or watering. We have no access to water except what rainwater has been collected in our several large cisterns - and they are getting low. Irrigation means buying water by the truckload - not something we are anxious to do yet).

The peaches are also looking good - we will start the harvest this coming week.



Remember back a couple months when we thought the rains would never end.
Compare these pictures - then and now ...




Here's hoping that temperatures will moderate and the rains will come.
Until then we'll drink lots of water & hide out in the cold storage.
The top temperature is inside the barn this evening. The bottom temperature is inside the cold storage.
Where would you rather be?

2 comments:

  1. amazing how good everything looks despite the heat and lack of water! the grass around here is completely yellowed and i'm trying to keep up with keeping my potted veggie plants from going all wilty (they are spoiled with twice a day watering, though i guess they don't have the straw/hay/manure protection).

    i guess we can never really complain about the weather because right around the corner, we'll be wishing for what we had! i am trying to envision the days of -20 that are not that far away and soak up extra heat units to store in my bones.
    can't wait for peaches!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We got about 1" of rain overnight - things are looking better already.
    Don't even want to think about -20 - I'll take the heat any day!

    ReplyDelete