Henny Penny Farmette

A patch of corn, one of several, tucked into the garden

This has been a tough season for my tomatoes because of the heat wave California (and the southwest) recently endured and the gophers that showed up early.

The heat topped out at 105 degrees Fahrenheit on my patio this week. The patio isn’t far from my garden where I have heirloom tomatoes and corn growing. There are cherry and grape tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, a tomatoes for paste. I’m also growing there and elsewhere on the property patches of corn, eggplant, pumpkins, summer squash, and other veggies.

Just when the second planting of corn in my garden had reached the fragile pollination stage, the heat wave hit. Such extreme summer heat stresses corn. In just one week, despite all the watering, an entire section of the corn dried, the moisture of the ears diminished, and some of the dried tassels blew away in the hot wind.

I’m worried that with the global warming problem, we Northern Californians who have always enjoyed the Mediterranean climate here will be experiencing more of this intense heat in coming years.