Summer is officially in season! Most of us got the news that June 21st marked the summer solstice (the longest day of the year in sunlight hours). While some cultures mark the first day of summer with community-wide festivities, the American agricultural tradition is a little different. These longer days allow more time to tend and harvest crops to bring to market. Farming is a sun-up til’ sun-down occupation and during this time of year, most farmers won’t make it home until 10PM after a full day’s work. The timing of longer days coincides neatly with the abundant harvest that Texas fields yield at this time of year.
The summer solstice marks a moment when plants are maximizing their growth thanks to the longer days (a.k.a) the opportunity to photosynthesize by converting sunlight into plant food. Texas plants can feel a lot like us on a nice pool day, a little sun has us feeling charged up but if we’re not careful we’ll get burned without protection. In the same way, plants love the sun, but too much UV causes their growth to slow and can even damage their leaves. That’s what makes this time of year so critical for plant growth and crop harvest! Summer crops are ripening up just before the sunshine takes it up a notch and our plants are feeling “burned out”.
You might be wondering how long the party can last with the Texas heat already setting in. The average hottest day of the year is around 5 weeks after the first day of summer (~July 26). Why isn’t the longest day also the hottest? Without going TOO far into the science, (Or maybe we should? 😊), the hottest day of the year is delayed for the same reason that the hottest hour of the day isn’t when the sun is most direct. Heat continues to accumulate in the Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and oceans over the weeks of more direct sunlight. For comparison, a pool isn’t the warmest at noon when the sun is directly overhead, it’s hottest around 3 or 4PM when the water has time to heat up in the sun over several hours. For more information, this phenomenon is known as the “Lag of Seasons”. It’s the Lag of Seasons that we can thank for the abundant harvest of sweet summer Texas produce that we can enjoy over the next 4 weeks from our local farmers! (Don’t worry though! Hardy summer crops like watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers, squash, okra, and aquaponically grown tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuces will continue to grow until fall crops are ready for harvest.)
