It has been freakishly hot here the past week or so, seems like every day we break another heat record: yesterday we not only broke the record for high day time temperature, but had the all time highest low temperature, for over night. It has never cooled off less over night, than it has lately. I am melting. People in the Cascadia bioregion are not adapted to extreme heat (which, for us, is anything over about 75 Fahrenheit degrees). Rain and sleet and dark of night, we can handle. Cold gray winters without end, we have an abundance of experience with. Just this past winter, an Oregon family survived about a week trapped in a snow storm, I think it was last winter that a kid got lost in the woods during a day hike, was out over night when the temperatures dipped below zero, without any food or bedding, and just hiked out on his own the next day. He was fine. Cold we can take, but we just loose it in the heat, especially when it doesn't cool off at nightOne good thing about the heat: my Heirloom tomatoes have started coming in! It has been a challenging year for gardening in the Pacific Northwest, we had a couple of freak, late season frosts --well after the last frost date-- that took out a lot of the Romas, and then the monsoons came, followed by this heat wave. But the heirlooms have been living up to their reputation for hardiness and longevity. The tomatoes and peppers are ripening up, the potatoes are ripe, and the parsnips are close behind, the chickens got the first crop of beets, but the next crop is coming in well, and the corn plants are maturing beautifully!
The Boy and I are planning to use the tomatoes and peppers to make pasta sauce, anyone have any favorite spegettie sauce recipies??
Meanwhile, I have invented a wonderful recipe of my own, in honor of the heat: Coffee Floats! I have been brewing the coffee early, before the house heats up, pouring it into a mason jar and adding the appropriate amount of sugar, then cooling it in the fridge. I pour this over ice and add a large dollop of ice cream and it makes me feel much better about the heat. While I am melting.
5 comments:
Your tomatoes are beautiful!
Thanks, I just wish I could remember what varieties I planted, and which is which. They started out labeled, after a fashion, but the chickens scattered and removed many of the labels, and the tomatoes sprawled, escaped the confines of their cages, and now it's a crazy jumble, a happy cacophony of fruit.
Any tips on surviving the heat??
Your tomatoes look amazing! I'm sure that's going to be one yummy pasta sauce. (though you probably want to wait to post heat-wave to turn on the stove!)
That coffee float sounds delicious! It's been hot here in Minnesota lately, too... And with all the humidity it doesn't even cool down at night.
wow, I dont think of Minnesota as hot and humid, but then Oregon isnt normaly like this either.
The Coffee Float is excelent, if I manage to launch the bike smoothie mobile I think I may have to add it to the menu. I highly recomend it!
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