Melons and Strawberries on their way out. Tomatoes gone soon.

Hey folks.  Just a friendly little mid October note.  It looks like melons are on their way out for the season.  Some farms still have a few around, but as the crisp cooler air starts to filter into the typically summery hot valleys, melons are taking a toll.  Get your's now if you wish to enjoy the sweetness of this summer treat.  Sure, you can buy Bakersfeild melons for another month or so, and Mexican melons through most of the winter, but trust me, these are not the same.  With all that travel, they tend to lose a lot of the flavor that makes them such a wonderful delight. And it will be much harder to find any thing except the mass produced cantaloupe, honeydew and water varieties.

Still plenty of carrots.

Strawberries also took a hit.  Not sure if you know this, but after a rain, all of the strawberries need to be picked - even the green ones.  Otherwise, the molds get a foot hold, take over and destroy whole fields of this fruit.  Not to despair, the plants do survive quite well as long as the fruit is gone.  But it does take some time for these guys to set more, and even longer to get them ripe.  Add to that the shorter days of fall, and you have a supply issue.  Many of the berries producers are still waiting for the next round of crop to ripen up. Here is what you need to look out for.  Warm, hot days like we had last week.  Follow that with no rain, and continued warmth, and the season can stretch all the way through the holidays.  Yes, those religious ones at the end of the year.  More likely though, rains will come sooner than then, and after the first really big series of cold wet storms, and the farms start to plan for next year.  In the near term, expect a little rebound in supply over the next two weeks, as fair weather is expected through at least another 10 days.

So.  Tomatoes.  The Late Blight got me finally.  And got me good.  I had to toss at least five pounds of beautiful green zebras, tigrellas, black Ethiopians, sungolds and crispis.  So sad.  It should up a few days after that last rain storm, and ripped through my garden quicker than I could pull out plants.  Bummer.  And, of course, I was not the only one.  Plenty of farms had the bight take their crops.  Most just called it a season, pulled and destroyed the plants, before and spores could get in their soil.  A few were a bit luckier, and were able to quarantine the effected plants and keep some of their crop producing.  Regardless, the season is coming to a close, especially for the larger varieties.  So get your tomato fix now, before they are gone.  On an upbeat note, one grower of San Marzanos had a bunch on young plants that were not effected by the blight, so they expect to get some of these wonderful sauce tomatoes right through the early part of November.  Fantastic.