Summer '24-'25 and it's blistering hot

Christmas has screamed by and it's now midsummer. It's been blisteringly hot and the grass in the paddocks and on neighbouring hills has turned golden. Contractors in their tractors drive down our road on their way to hay-making jobs with their hay-cutting, hay-fluffing and hay-baling attachments ready for a long, hot, hay-making day.

Right now, we're hoping for rain that has been forecast. We check the weather app a few times a day. Sometimes it feels like it's raining everywhere else ... but here. We were driving on our road the other day and one drop of rain hit the windscreen. Someone wisecracked that it was one of the isolated showers forecast. We want rain because our in-ground crops need a really good soaking and our water tanks need a good generous top-up to get us through the second half of summer. The grass in our paddocks would turn from the current golden colour to green which would please our cattle and goats.

The weather dictates our schedule. Before wet weather arrives there are tasks we'll aim to get done. We'll rush to get near-ripe tomatoes picked and inside so they don't swell and split in the wet. We'll pick and pack leafy produce ahead of schedule - because it has to be dry before it's packaged. If it's going to be really hot, we'll start work outside at sunrise to get the lettuces inside while it's cool ... as the heat makes them warm and soft. If we're expecting strong winds we'll check that plants are supported and cloche covers are secure.

The summer weather brings holiday-makers who come to nearby holiday hot-spots, stay in their baches, enjoy the beach and become our holiday-maker-customers. Our farmer's market gets super busy over the summer holiday. Local-customers come early to beat the holiday-maker-customers. Our babyleaf with edible flower bags are always in high demand at the market and in the local shops who stock it. Everyone wants them for their larger than normal get-togethers. From a week or so before Christmas to late January we're picking and packing butterhead lettuce and edible flowers every morning for it. This year we've kept up with demand almost perfectly. It surprised us, so we looked back on the babyleaf sale numbers from last year to check demand isn't down. Numbers aren't down. Why are we keeping up? We've become faster and more efficient and we've gotten better at growing the right amount at the right speed. This is great news!

It's this time of the year that our basil gets super big - like, massive. It's so big it's hard to get them out of their grow-pots ready for the market. We get up in the dark on market day to get them in, out of their pots and wrapped in paper. It's a very early arm-workout, yanking the pot off the basil root ball. It's also a very early nose-workout ... the packing room is filled to overflowing with basil aroma. Market customers smell the basil before they see it, and they can't believe their eyes when they do. If they look overwhelmed with the size, we say share it with a friend (or two) or make a load of pesto and freeze it. 

We're different from most other tomato growers. We grow our tomatoes outdoors, out our front paddock rather than in a tunnel or glass house. Being outside, it is always a bit of a mission to get the tomatoes tied up and kept supported throughout the season. Therefore, in the summer, our front paddock ends up being a bit of a tomato jungle! Our tomatoes are out ... with nothing between them and the blistering hot sun, in the rain when it falls and feeling the wind in their leaves. Is their great flavour a result of their life in the great outdoors? We think so. When we pick them we admire the bold red of their skin, their quirky curves and how each variety is so different from the other. To read a rundown of the tomato varieties we're growing this summer click here

What else are we growing in the front paddock this summer? We're growing eggplant, chili and little capsicum for the first time. We check on them daily and watch their development curiously because we're still learning how the plants behave, what they need from us like water and food and when they'll be ready to pick. We were surprised when the Hungarian wax chili peppers comically appeared upside-down on the plants. The eggplants seem sneaky the way they hide their fruit under huge leaves. And it was news to us that some capsicums and chili go black before turning their final colour. 

We have Lebanese cucumbers, zucchini, scallopini, green beans, rocket and mizuna in the no-dig beds. Some of the zucchini plants have been producing since early October, are producing less and it's a balancing act deciding when to take them out and replace them with another crop. Hydroponic crops of basil, thai basil, coriander and the various lettuces we grow stay lush and sweet in our hot summer. The continuous water running through their roots stops them from turning bitter or bolting to flower as they would if they were in the ground and got dry. 

We've been market gardening full time for about 6 years now. The years of growing in this location with it's own challenges, and copious notes we have written for ourselves, give us self assurance. It feels like we've got more headspace to appreciate the farm and the beauty of the produce we grow. With all of the inspiration around, it occurred to me it was high time I start drawing again, something that had been put on the back burner for many years. I'm loving illustrating and telling the stories of life here on our small farm. I'll continue to post on our social media accounts, in our emailed blogs for our subscribers and on our website.

Soon it'll be time to start seeding autumn plants for our in-ground beds, for the hydroponics and to sell as seedlings at the farmer's market. Once the end of February comes it won't be long before the temperatures start to cool, the summer plants will be replaced with winter crops and the garden will once more be transformed.

Thanks for taking the time to find out what's been happening here in our small corner of the world. Enjoy the rest of summer at your place.