Hot July Sun Producing Peak Produce Yields

By Peter Lyons Hall

Recent heat waves, together with a series of sun-filled days with minimal rain has produced excellent conditions for growing fruits, berries, and other produce, according to Lakeside Farmers Market vendors in Greenwood Lake’s weekly Saturday venue at Winstanley Park on Windermere Ave.

 We met orchard representative, David, from Locust Grove Orchards who reported that “right now is the perfect in-season moment to experience a wide variety of fruits: we have our blueberries, red and white currents, that are a great Mediterranean fruit and you see a lot in jams and pies. Right now there is a vast variety of different plums including sugar plums and varieties of apricots are perfect right now and in perfect (unblemished) shape. These are about as soft and perfect as you can get we also have some peaches, finally, because everybody’s been asking for them – varieties of white and plain peaches; and then cherries, of course, are in peak season everything from sour cherries –which are great for cooking – to Rainiers, which are sweet, and black cherries.”

 So far this year Mother Nature has endowed orchards with sufficient sun to bless both quality and quantity of yields. Last year growers faced a lot of precipitation so a lot of the fruits were affected by the excess moisture, especially early in the season, causing some fruit, like cherries, to split. “Thankfully everything’s been great so far this season and the crops look perfect. The berries flew through and people are still craving them we just don’t have enough,” lamented David.

 Jeff Bialis from J&A Farms in Goshen’s Black Dirt Region was excited about harvest his potato crop, the first of the season:  “We have some new red potatoes and some yellow flesh potatoes that we’re very happy with; they have very thin skins they cook quickly and are really, really sweet. We should be having more each week. Meanwhile, there are cucumbers that are superior looking, and a few eggplant are beginning to arrive as well. The leaf lettuce, however, has been tough to keep going through all this heat so I’ve had to irrigate it quite regularly to keep it cool and it doesn’t like heat as much as a lot of other crops. And we’ve got ‘little gems’ (bibb lettuce) which are quite tender and then red leaf some salad mix.”

 The Lakeside Farmers Market also features several vendors who provide prepared foods and baked goods, like the Original Laker Baker, Heather Bradford. Each day she bakes new batches of several items that include her popular coffee cakes, together with brownie bites, raspberry linzer torts (which is a fan favorite), oatmeal raisin cookies, an assortment of muffins, banana bread, and chocolate chip loaf cake.

 The number of degree days (difference between the daily temperature mean) this season has also set the stage for a good crop of tomatoes that will be arriving shortly. Like sweet corn, which just made its debut in several areas, tomatoes are anxiously anticipated each season for their intense flavor and the growing number of varieties available. Look for the outstanding “heirloom” tomatoes which are recognized for their variations in color and their extraordinary flavor. Tomatoes are a source of beta-carotene, lycopene, and vitamin C, all of which are antioxidants that protect against cell damage, according to “Health.com.” Research has shown that nutrients in tomatoes might reduce your risk of heart disease, neurodegenerative disease, and type 2 diabetes.

 Warwick’s three farmers markets are available on different days of the week to complement customers schedules and establish an orderly market arrangement for each community: on Tuesday, Village of Florida’s Farmers Market is open from 10AM-4PM; Village of Warwick’s Farmers Market is open from 9AM-2PM on Sundays; and the Lakeside Famers Market in the Village of Greenwood Lake is open each Saturday from 9AM-1PM [https://VillageofGreenwoodLake.org/Lakeside-Farmers-Market]. Lakeside also features entertainment and representatives from a number of both farms, orchards, distilleries, prepared foods, artisan crafts, and information.