We would almost tend to forget it. The heat wave hit Vaucluse hard the week of August 21, 2023 for several days, the department even switched to red alert. High temperatures, quite unprecedented at this time of year, which had serious consequences on certain Vaucluse crops. This is the case in Cavaillon on part of the 50 hectares of production of Jean-Michel Durand. The market gardener and arborist, from father to son, lost two-thirds of his pumpkins.
“The sunburn has cracked the fruit which causes rot inside”, describes Jean-Michel Durand in front of his whole crates of pumpkin placed in front of his property. They are literally split and cracked. The market gardener has not yet made the accounts. He already knows that the financial losses will be very heavy. “We haven’t had a normal year for five years”he laments.
51.3 degrees inside the pumpkin
On Wednesday August 23, Jean-Michel Durand took a probe to measure the temperature inside a pumpkin. “It gave 51.3 degrees”, says the arborist. The heat wave also ravaged part of its apple production.
