Summers in this part of Virginia are renowned for their mild temperatures, cool breezes, and low humidity – a veritable paradise.
WRONG!!!
Lets take a look at the high temperatures and dew point readings* from the official Serendipity Farmhouse weather station:
26 JUL: 93.9° – 76.5°
27 JUL: 94.8° – 74.5°
28 JUL: 93.6° – 73.6°
29 JUL: 90.9° – 75.9°
30 JUL: 91.6° – 84.6°
31 JUL: 83.8° – 79.2°
Please recall in our post last week that one of our ongoing problems was and still is that my dearly appreciated riding mower/lawn tractor, which I use to mow the vast 1.203 acres of the prestigious SFH Estate died and remains sitting in a repair facility. That means that your humble writer has had to go out into that torrid Virginia summer heat and guide a meager push mower endless miles attempting to tame the monstrously persistent growth of the grasses that were once luxuriant SFH lawns.
This week, it took me three days and the loss of at least five pounds of water weight to accomplish that task. And, as I look out the window of my office, I can see that the .25 inches of rain that fell last night is already fueling the unbridled growth of each and every blade of grass, promising me another week of push mower torture. – Despite all that, I maintain that I shall persist and see this task through until my dearly appreciated riding mower returns.
SFH Spiked Salsa
This last week, we harvested the six pounds of tomatoes needed to make another batch of salsa. We modified our basic recipe to suit our own preference for something spicy. To our Simple Salsa recipe we added two full jalapeno peppers (with seeds) and two Anaheim peppers. To make the mixture more mellow and aromatic, we added four cloves of our own SFH garlic.
But even with the addition of jalapenos and Anaheim peppers, dearest Wife and I wanted to go one step further and my beautiful Bride said, “Let’s go for some real heat.” So, she spiked the salsa mixture with our specially-made concoction of dried, ground SFH hot peppers, containing jalapeno, habanero, and several other varieties of peppers. Please refer to our post Hot Peppers Above & Beyond. – Therefore, this second batch of salsa bears the name – SFH Spiked Salsa.
* The dew point is the temperature the air needs to be cooled to (at constant pressure) in order to achieve a relative humidity (RH) of 100%. At this point the air cannot hold more water in the gas form. If the air were to be cooled even more, water vapor would have to come out of the atmosphere in the liquid form, usually as fog or precipitation. – National Weather Service
SFH Gardens by the Numbers
The following links will catch you up with what has been planted and what has been harvested since our last Journal post:
SFH WX Station Report – Weekly:
SFH WX 2021-07-26 through 08-01