We're heading into the first week of our summer crop season with a few new things in the box. The weather this year has been favorable for overall crop health, so both warm and cool loving crops are doing well. Lettuce, broccoli, zucchini, and tomatoes are all looking good. The only difficulty has been too much rain at times. Any good farmer makes sure they have well drained ground, so we're doing okay.

The slightly cooler weather (we've not hit 90 degrees all summer and there's no such heat in the forecast) has mostly been to our benefit, with cooler crops like broccoli and lettuce doing well. Warm weather crops like zucchini and tomatoes have had plenty of heat, with lots of zucchini in the box now and through most of July. Field tomatoes look fantastic, and hoop house tomatoes (Sun Golds) may well make a debut appearance next week. It's a ways down the road, but peppers are setting fruit very well (important and difficult in hot weather). We should have a great crop barring any flooding rains or record heat, though once the pepper flowers have pollinated and set fruit, not much can stop them. Even in last year's heat, peppers did ok as long as they had some slightly cooler periods (when highs were in the 80's instead of the 90's) to pollinate/set fruit.

Broccoli is looking great and yielding fairly well. Please be aware that the stems are totally edible and good for you as well--just cut them up a little smaller so they cook as fast as the larger florets. We're planting more broccoli than ever this year, so there's a good chance of it being in most boxes now through mid-October.

I do apologize that some varieties of lettuce have been a little bitter the last couple weeks. Had it been any more bitter, we'd not have been able to include it in the box. The culprit is heat without sufficient water. Lettuce is quite sensitive to hot and especially hot and dry weather. It can be kept in good shape, up to a point, in hot weather with frequent irrigation to keep it cool and hydrated. As the summer wears on, we'll try to keep lettuce particularly well watered, and we'll harvest it a little on the younger/smaller side to maximize quality and minimize bitterness.

On the Mesclun front, we're going to try harder to monitor moisture levels to keep it from getting too wet. In humid summer weather, the air is full of moisture, which then condenses out of the air when crops are harvested and put in the cooler. Cold air can't hold as much moisture as warm air, so warm saturated air becomes over saturated when cooled and water condenses out of it, just like when a cold glass of water "sweats" in hot weather. The warm, humid air loses its moisture and condenses water on the outside of the cold glass. The same thing happens inside our bins of greens when they're harvested in humid summer weather. We'll try to keep them cracked in the cooler for an hour or two after harvest to allow this moisture to escape, and for the crop to cool down more quickly. All this will improve shelf life and crop quality. Postharvest handling is one of the most difficult and important factors affecting crop quality, and teaching new people this skill is a challenge every year.

We'll have onions in the box possibly next week, for sure in two weeks. Garlic suffered terribly in the heat of last summer (record heat), and continues to suffer in the wet of this year (also a record), so our garlic stock has been reduced in quality. I'll certainly have to buy new garlic this fall to supplement and strengthen our overall reserves. What we lack in garlic, we seem to make up for with onions as this year's crop looks good. Tomatoes should start up in the next week or two as well, and last through September. Potatoes will also be coming on soon.