Before the Heat
For the past two weeks, every time I’ve walked to the garage I get thumped in the forehead by an unripe passion fruit or two, hanging low from the vine that stretches between the back corner of our roof and the top front edge of the set-back garage. The fruit appeared quickly this year. It seemed like only a few weeks ago that I noticed the first passion flower on the vine, exploding open toward the midday sun. Soon after, the vine came alive with the white noise humming of bees tucking into the new blooms before they close shut at sundown. And it didn’t take long for the egg-shaped green fruit to start appearing everywhere.
The tomato plants have all filled out, waist high and bushy except for the squatty determinate Sophie’s Choice. The fruit is still green but getting heavy – the Sungold and Russian Queen clusters look like spindly fingers filling out at their tips.
Corn has started showing up at the market. The kids love corn – I’ve gone home with bags full the past two weekends, even though I know the sweetness won’t be there until the summer heat arrives. Both times they’ve gone into farro salads – first, tossed with some farmer’s market spinach, fresh oregano, homemade green harissa and lemon juice, then with sautéed shallots and poblano chiles, grape tomatoes, lime juice and cilantro.
The morning sun poked through the June gloom enough to make me feel hot in my 3/2 full wetsuit, before the clouds returned and turned the ocean back to a cool, emotionless grey.
