Good week,
This coming Tuesday, June 21, is the day with the most hours of light in the year and the least hours of darkness.
This is so in the northern hemisphere. (In the southern hemisphere, it is the opposite – Least light, most darkness) From wednesday, the days will begin to shorten and the nights will get longer. This day is the summer solstice. After this day it is officially summer, which means that there is no more spring fickleness. Let’s see if it happens.
The winter solstice – the shortest day and the longest night – is on December 21. After this solstice the light just grows and grows (until hanuka 🙂 )
The reason that there are solstices is because the axis of the earth is on an angle to it’s orbit around the sun.
There are also two equinox days in which the hours of the light is equal to the hours of the darkness. This occurs on March 21st and September 23rd.
So summer is now beginning. In the heat, everything moves faster and in the garden the plants rush to flower. There is plenty of juicy fruits, which are actually mature flowers. There are less leaves and roots, because it is now difficult for them to grow the parts we want to eat as they hurry to flower. Of course, there is a slowdown of sowing and planting for a few months as everything is blooming and flowering.
I wish to remind you to always care for the fresh produce promptly and correctly in order to preserve it. Anything ripe should go directly into the refrigerator. If something is wilted from the heat, remember that, like us, it was outside all day, so a cool shower, good drying (important!) and storage in the fridge is needed. Typically that will refresh both the packager and the packagee.
Have a not-to-hot week and a nice vacation for all of the over elementary kids!
To health!
Yours, Maggie and the garden staff
I expect in our organic vegetable baskets (draft only):
coriander
lettuce
celery
cabbage
Thai green beans 🙂 ?
Tomatoes (outdoor) less beautiful, full of flavor
onions
pumpkin
Cherry tomatoes
Zucchinis
In the larger organic vegetable baskets, also:
Green onions
Butter nut squash
Peppers
Parsley
Organic fruit baskets;
Melon
And bananas
In the larger organic fruit baskets, also:
Plums
And mini watermelon
