Holy heat wave! We hope all of you are staying cool and hydrated this week. Most of our crew aren’t big fans of the heat, but we appreciate them sticking it out and working hard through all types of weather. Thankfully the staff freezer is stocked with popsicles and ice cream to help cool down after a hot day.

Around here, we like to joke that in this kind of weather you can watch the vegetables grow right in front of your eyes. You’ll look at a plant one day, and by the next it seems to have doubled in size. However, not all plants like the heat as much as others. Cool weather crops such as radishes, peas, spinach, and most brassicas like when the day time temps stay at 75 or lower. Once the daytime temp consistently stays above 75, the veggies start to change. Radishes become extra spicy, brassicas and spinach bolt, and peas can become tough and bitter. Thankfully we live in a place where the night time temps still get cool enough to balance out the hot day time temps, so this doesn’t happen as often.

Even some of our warm weather crops like squash, peppers, and tomatoes can be bothered by the heat. If the day time temps are consistantly above 90, the plants start to protest. Tomatoes will pause putting on new fruit, and ripening exhisting fruit. Peppers tend to drop their flowers before they have a chance to be pollinated, leading to less fruit per plant. Cucurbit (squash, melons, and cucumber) plants tend to create a higher ratio of male flowers. The female flowers are the ones that produce the fruit. The male flowers are only there for pollination. It might look like the plants are happy because they have lots of flowers on them, but chances are, they’re mostly male which is why new fruit isn’t being produced.

Fun fact: Did you know tomato flowers only have a 50 hour window of when they can be pollinated. If the flower isn’t pollinated within that timeframe, it won’t result in a tomato.

Since this isn’t our first rodeo, we have lots of tricks up our sleeve to help the plants when it gets hot out. Remember a few weeks ago when I talked about us mulching some of our vegetables? That mulch will be very helpful this week in ensuring the plants retain moisture so the soil drys out slower. We also shift our watering schedule. We’ll also water the plants in the early morning, or later at night when the air temp is a little cooler. When it’s super hot out like this, we tend to shift our harvesting time from the afternoon to early morning. This is very beneficial in helping our crew stay cool in the greenhouses before the hottest part of the day. It benefits the plants by reducing some of its energy demands. With less fruit, the plant can sit back and relax a little which puts less stress on them.

In your box this week:

Broccoli – Cauliflower – Lettuce – Lettuce Mix – Greens Mix – Carrots – Cucumber – Garlic Scapes

It’s strawberry season! Use up some of your greens from this week, and pair them with some locally picked strawberries for this Chipotle Chicken Salad. This salad has smokey chicken, crispy bacon, juicy sweet corn, and a bright cilantro dressing. It’s perfect for a hot summer day. If you aren’t a fan of chicken, this would also be great with steak, shrimp, or tofu.

If you want salads this week, but are looking for something new, try grilling your lettuce. The head lettuce in this week’s box is perfect for grilling. Grilling the lettuce helps to carmelize the natural sugars which tones down any bitterness in the lettuce. It also creates a wonderful smokey, savory flavor. Grilled lettuce can be used in almost any salad. A great starter recipe is this Grilled Romaine Salad.