- Just pick the first batch of peas and ended up with just over 10 lbs shucked. There was more to be picked but the bowls were full!! - Sugar Snap peas are almost done (thank goodness) - Yellow Bush Beans are ready to be picked - Carrots are maturing nicely and are being attacked by grasshoppers - beets vary in size but some could be picked and roasted... yumm! - kale is HUGE (and no cabbage worms ... yet), kohlrabi is almost big enough to pick, and turnips are a nice size - swiss chard has been ready for a while - onions & garlic are HUGE this year - cauliflower has nice size heads, ready to pick soon before cabbage worms get too bad - lots of green tomatoes but nothing ripening get - some zucchini and papaya pear are ready for harvesting - spaghetti squash is behind even though they are monster plants this year! my largest is about the size of a baseball (hard ball not soft ball), last year they were almost full size but green in the beginning of august - tators - Norland harvestable and plants healthy, Yukon Gold harvestable and plants starting to die back - should be able to pick my first greenhouse cucumber within the week :) - Sunflowers starting to open .... and I'm so glad I can start harvesting (& blanching) because that means I have no time for weeding!!! :)

Final report on the spring planting of Cool Breeze: 32 lbs of cucumbers from 12 plants. Put another way, 24 pints of bread and butter pickles, 9 quarts of sliced dill pickles, and a few cucumbers for fresh eating and sharing with family. Every fruit was crisp, juicy, and sweet, even when the plans were under stress. They held very well in the fridge, too. That trait was really useful, since I needed to collect 2-3 pickings to get enough for a batch of pickles. Debby did them in; I've been battling mildew for weeks but after three days of near-constant rain every single leaf is badly damaged, even the newest growth. I'm going to give it a few days to see if any of the small fruit still on the vines will grow to usable size, then yank them. (Also, I need to get more seeds before I can replant.) I had pretty much expected to lose them in the heat and humidity of summer. With the good harvest, I consider them a big success, and will definitely replant this variety in the future. Note: The fruits I had this year were really spiny. I don't remember them being this spiny when I grew them years ago. I even had spines lodge in my fingers and break off in my skin. (The good news is that the spines soften up and fall out after a few hours.) If you have delicate skin, I recommend wearing gloves to harvest and handle them until you wash the spines off, or they soften on their own.

Dean, I see your heirloom search continues, and I can help you with this one. The most popular Asian burpless variety is probably "Suyo (or Suhyo) Long". I grew it several years back, and found it to be highly productive. The fruits are over a foot long, slender, and tasty. It should be trellised for the straightest cukes. Many companies carry it, including Evergreen Y. H. and Baker Creek. "Kyoto Yard Long" is another, carried by Kitazawa Seed. I haven't grown it yet - it's on my list for a future trial. I try to grow one Asian cucumber each year for seed. This year, I am growing "Yamato Extra Long", a variety with extremely long, slim fruits. It has shown itself to be a strong climber, so the long fruits will be kept off the ground (which should keep them straight). The vines are just beginning to set cukes now; I'll post a report here on GW later this season, at which time seed should be available. I first observed it on Seeds Savers Exchange's Heritage Farm last year, where it was yielding prolifically. A variety of interest that I have grown in the past was "WI 5207". It was developed in Wisconsin, apparently from at least some Asian parentage. The cukes are thick like conventional slicers, but are about 12" long, nearly spineless, and very straight. They are very slow to set seed, and some will be seedless (see below). The flavor is bitter-free, unusual, & very pleasant. Thus far, it is my favorite long cucumber. Aside from its taste & appearance, two things make WI 5207 noteworthy. The first is that it is highly disease-resistant, to a long list including: scab, CMV, angular leaf spot, FW, DM, PM, and anthracnose. In my trials, it was also highly resistant to cucumber beetles. The person from whom I obtained seed carries another line which he claims is also bacterial wilt resistant, but I have not yet tried it. "WI 5207" is also an open-pollinated parthenocarpic variety - something truly rare in cucumbers (most parthenocarpic varieties are hybrids which will not breed true). It will set fruit with or without pollination... if grown under cover or without bees, the cukes will be seedless. However, if pollinated, some will be seeded. Fortunate, if you intend to save seeds. ;-) I offer seed for this variety on my Exchange Page - contact me via my Member Page if you might be interested.

Scott, YOU had to water! That's amazing. I would have thought you'd be the last person in Oklahoma this year who'd have to water anything. LOL I love, love, love Brandy Boy. The first year that it hit the market, I was very, very skeptical, but I bought the seed and raised the plants and was very pleased with both the plant's performance and the mater's flavor. I've grown it ever since. EVERYONE who wants to sell a tomato will try to tell you that it "tastes like Brandywine" or "beat Brandywine in a taste test" or whatever. Brandy Boy, though, is one tomato about which I think this claim could be made. In a good year, I am lucky to get 6 ripe tomatoes off of a Sudduth Brandywine (and maybe only 3 or 4 in a bad year), but I will get at least 3 times that many fruit, and often quite a lot more, from each Brandy Boy plant. In the years since Brandy Boy debuted, Burpee brought out quite a few other tomatoes that actually seem to have been bred for flavor instead of grocery store shelf longevity. From this group of maybe a dozen tomatoes, the ones I've tried and decided were "keepers" are "Bucks County", "Little Brandywine" and "Porterhouse". This is my first year to try "Burpee's Big Mama", which is an indeterminate paste type that has long, large tomatoes whose shape kind of reminds me of Jersey Devil. I haven't eaten enough of them yet to decide if the flavor makes them a keeper, though. They are huge monster of plants and are prolific producers. Dawn