July 2010: 100 Degrees+ on the Chicago Roof Farm

I walked to the bank after lunch and the thermometer read 100. It's blazing hot on the roof, a gift to the vegetables, though the bees' water trough was dry.



I'm grateful for the larger SIPs we set up for the tomatoes and eggplants--the water reservoir is at least four times that of the 5-gal SIPs. Here's a beautiful cluster of an unknown variety. Anyone have an idea?

In the wake of our failed spring tomato starts and the subsequent rush to locate heirloom varieties in the neighborhood and get them planted, my labeling system apparently collapsed, or at least several labels flew off their buckets. Hence the mystery of the beautiful pleated bundle above.

Other rooftop puzzles include this beauty, possibly an Italian grape, a gift from Debbie, Kara's mom.


Here are a few I can identify:

Black Prince,
from green to orange to dusky dark.

Brandywine Pink.

Cherokee purple.

Black velvet.

Given the bounty, we're not too worried about exact identification (that's a fib--we really do like to know).

The melons already need twice daily watering in this heat.

And I had to put a cloche on the red giant mustard seeds I started this morning. Otherwise the seeds dry out too quickly in the heat and can't germinate.

The baby bok choy and Debbie's heat-tolerant lettuce we planted just last week are flourishing.

The Armenian cukes are (cross fingers) powdery mildew free and happily climbing Art's trellis. I'd never started cukes in June--always in cooler, wetter May, which may be why they've always been decimated by powdery-mildew.


Bruce has been pickling vegetables. He brought over a sampler to have with our lunch. I hope he blogs about it soon.

Delectable pickled zucchini, onions, and eggplant
(the latter from his garage roof).

He cut up some of our tomatoes.

I made these flatbreads, somehow convinced that baking them on a cast iron griddle on top of the stove would be less hot than in the oven (it wasn't).

Art started building a sandwich on the flatbread with Bruce's pickled onion and avocado.

A cool lunch on a hot day.