We started out with hot weather early one but it has now gotten cooler. They
said overall we are running a half a degree cooler than normal. And we are
still in a severe drought.

We got our cherries early on and the tree was picked clean before the 4th
which is normally the day we harvest. Or thereabouts.

Our apples and pears came on early too and now the concern is that they are
dropping like mad. They have never done this before. Husband had to lop some
branches off of the apple tree. It is so heavy with apples that branches
were bending down into the back house. Because of my old gardener's injury
then death, the trees did not get pruned like they should. That didn't help.
Subsequent gardener and arborist did not know what to make of the early
fruit and cautioned me that it might not make it to being edible. And of
course I have two people now itching for the fruit.

And because of the wacky weather, some things that should be locally
available are no longer. Only stands I see now are for cherries. Fred Meyer
had some not so nice strawberries on sale for cheap but they were from CA. I
hadn't noticed what came from where as I hadn't intended to purchase much
produce there. I did pick up two green peppers for a Mexican Tater Tot
casserole later this week when the weather cools further. I only got those
as I suspected sky high prices at PCC. I was right on that. Anyway... This
older lady approached me with her nose turned up and informed me that
nothing seemed to be local.

I did get a handful of giant snow peas at PCC. They were local. They were
$6.95 per pound and I suspected mislabling due to their size and the
seemingly large peas inside. But I saw English peas in another spot for
$1.00 less per pound and they were smaller. So... Guess I will find out when
I eat some!

I am also finding that apples now come in two sizes. The tiny lunchbox size
and super huge! Most are super huge. Most stores here now give free produce
to kids age 12 and under. So you will see a wagon or baskets or some other
kind of display with the tiny apples, bananas and small oranges. At PCC the
kids can have anything of their choice in the produce section. And they can
also choose their portion size. They are very generous. When Angela was
younger, the produce guy said if she wanted some pineapple, he would cut it
for her. But she often chose carrots as those were her favorite. But I see
nothing of the size of apples from my youth. Mostly the tiny ones are free
for kids or part of a mixed fruit bag. Almost all of the ones for sale are
the huge ones.

Anyway... Is the weather affecting your produce? People I know with home
gardens are worried about the tomatoes. They got the fruit early on but now
due to the cooler weather, it flat out isn't ripening. Some have gotten a
few smaller tomatoes that ripened, but most are still green.

On Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 3:53:57 AM UTC-5, Julie Bove wrote:
....
> Anyway... Is the weather affecting your produce? People I know with home
> gardens are worried about the tomatoes. They got the fruit early on but now
> due to the cooler weather, it flat out isn't ripening. Some have gotten a
> few smaller tomatoes that ripened, but most are still green.

Gee, who woulda thunk it? ;-)

John Kuthe...