A Glorious Weekend

This past weekend was beautiful.  The highs were right at 80 degrees, and the weather was sunny or partly cloudy both days.  I spent nearly all of it outside. 

The garden got new seeds during the weekend.  We harvested the last of the spinach.  My sons helped pluck leaves off the stalks. Steamed and frozen it was 3 pounds of food.  Arugula and most of the sugar snap pea plants came out too.  They were done, and I  planted yellow snap beans, swiss chard, and parsnips in those open spots.

Here is the giant basket of spinach.  Tomatoes are ripening, slowly.  Almost every day, there's a few more that are ready to be picked.  The yellow grape "Ildi" tomatoes are my favorites so far.

 There were two radishes from my first seedbed that I'd let go to seed.  I pulled them up on Saturday and harvested the seed pods.  Below is one radish plant! 

It produced a massive quantity of seed pods.  They have a mild radish flavor, and add variety to salads.

One of the volunteer plants has produced fruit, and when I realized what it is, I laughed out loud.

We had some of these mini-pumpkins last year at Halloween-time.  I think William painted or decorated it.  Well, eventually it wound up the compost, which was spread over the garden in February.  A seed survived and germinated, and now I have white mini-pumpkins in the garden.

Saturday Sale

The Moulin Rouge Sunflowers are opening up.  We really enjoy how these flowers look.  Most of the stalks are over 6 feet tall, with the Mammoth Sunflowers about 7 feet tall.  Not as big as last year, but they are packed in much tighter.

I'll be selling and giving produce away again tomorrow.  Lettuce, mustard greens, basil, and more.  The garden will be open for business from 9 AM to around 3 PM.  The weatherman says tomorrow will be another beautiful day.  If you need the address, let me know.

My mother was over and said that I had to take a picture of this seedbed.  She said that the onions with the mustard behind it looked "architectural."

I don't have enough ripe tomatoes to be able to offer some up tomorrow.  Soon, though.  Very soon.

A week of harvests

The garden is keeping me busy.  Most of my free time is going into some sort of harvesting.  Every day there are things that must be picked.  Here are some pictures of harvests in the past week.

Right now the garden is producing food that my family enjoys...broccoli, squash, peas, snap beans, and tomatoes.  The grocery bill is a little lighter these days.

Oh, kohl rabi is ready.  I had a raw one sliced up in my lunch salad today.  Anyone have a kohl rabi recipe?

First Tomatoes, First Squash, First Beans of 2012

We had beautiful weather this weekend, and I was able to be out in the garden for three hours on Saturday, and almost all of Sunday.  Sunday as I was wrapping things up, I checked out the tomatoes closely, and discovered three ripe chocolate cherry tomatoes, and a red Park Early tomato.  I was stoked.  I don't think I had tomatoes by June 3 last year.

Carrots are also ready for eating.  They are not fully mature, but close enough for us.  I have 3 rectangles of carrots in the garden, planted in succession.  This mutant is from the first one planted, red-cored chantenay.

The first squash are coming in...here is a decent-sized zucchini variety.  We also have yellow squash.  There was enough to harvest and eat as a side dish on Saturday.

The Royal Burgundy Snap Beans are ready.  Angelia loves these beans...they are really attractive, and have a sweet taste to them.  When you cook them, they turn dark green.

Here is the Saturday harvest...clockwise from top...sugar snap peas, burgundy beans, zucchini, the flowering tops of Chinese Cabbage (delicious in salad), "Blondie" Peas, carrots, and straightneck yellow squash.

Sunday's harvest had the tomatoes, broccoli leaves, icicle radishes, and arugula to boot.  When I showed Angelia the tomatoes, she instantly popped one of the chocolate cherries in her mouth, which is exactly what you're supposed to do.