Watermelons

Hot August afternoons lead me to dream of cool, juicy and sweet watermelons. There is no better source of relief I can think of, except maybe soaking my head in the Battenkill. Summer weather has finally found us here in the last weeks of August with temperatures pushing into the 90's, humidity making it feel like you're walking through an aquarium, and dramatic thunderstorms every other afternoon. The warmer temperatures have finally pushed some warm weather crops towards maturity. We picked our first ripe watermelon yesterday and proclaimed, "This is good!"

It's always a little difficult to tell when the melons are ready and usually requires a bit of sampling to be sure. We basically go by the 'pig tail' method and find it pretty reliable. Check the little curly tendril along the main vine closest to the melon in question. If it is dried and browning, the melon is likely ready. If it's still green, check again in a few days.

This year we are growing four types of melons: Sugar Baby, a red bowling ball sized watermelon, Yellow Moonbeam, a yellow watermelon, Sugar Nut, a small canary melon with yellow skin and
green flesh, and Delicious, a standard cantaloupe. I'm not sure how many I'll find that are ripe yet, but plan to start bringing them to market this week.

The summer weather has brought all kinds of woes to the farm. It would be real easy to go on and on about this, week after week, wallowing in the challenges of farming, but I won't subject you to that today. When things get this frustrating I need to focus on the positive. So, I won't mention how crazy a day last Friday was when we lost power for 4 hours due to a severe thunderstorm and had to get ready for Saturday's market with no water or refrigeration. And I'm certainly not going to even hint at the reaction the baby greens growing in the greenhouse are having to the heat and humidity and all the mold, rot, and goo it brings with it. And I wouldn't think of writing about how fast and tall weeds can grow in this weather ("I could swear I planted a cash crop here").

Yes, stay positive! Enjoy the summer and all the good things it brings: walking barefoot, floating in a cool lake, reading books in the sun, and eating watermelon.