Smith Rock Farm

Thriving summer and winter squash, eggplant, onions, brussels sprouts. At left, raspberries. In background, beets, asparagus, lavender, lettuce, swiss chard, radishes and carrots.

In the high desert of Central Oregon we typically have a short growing season because even when the days are very warm, nights are cool enough (below 50 degrees) that plants stop growing until it warms up the next morning. This delays maturity by about two weeks.
This year, however, we’ve had unusually warm evenings, as well as unusually hot days in July. That extra warmth — plus a lot of regular watering — gave us vegetables on steroids this year.