These are a small patty pan squash, so cute, and my very first Sungold F1 tomatoes. I also found four Sungold Select II tomatoes that had colored, so I'll wait for all of them to ripen a little more on the counter before their initial taste-test. There are still Fortex pole beans waiting to be picked today. From one 8-foot double row, I've gotten a gallon of them every other day for a week. There are a few Italian green beans waiting to be picked, too, not as many. My cowpeas and limas haven't blossomed yet, so I guess they'll be along a little later, maybe with the main season tomatoes. There are several cucumber blossoms on the vines climbing up the trellis, so we should get cukes soon, too! Also peppers, which have babies on them now. We've already eaten our strawberry crop, several zucchini squashes, two patty pans, and a lot of lettuce. I'll set out the Emerald okra today, a bit late, but that won't matter with everything else that's coming in.

You are the second person I have heard of, in the last two days, who says they have a market contract and can only sell what is on their contract. The other person said that only certain people can bring certain things. They have 2 or 3 people who can sell tomatoes, several sell melons and etc. If it were me, I would walk away from a market like that. It is like a monopoly and IMO bad for the consumers. What if the person that sells tomatoes are really bad and don't taste good? What if mine taste much better, the customers never get to try them. What about a crop failure, hailstorm? If you allowed everyone to sell what they want, then the customers will talk and the person with the best stuff will get more business and the poorer tomato person will sell less. Why restrict your customers options? Just wondering. About selling cantaloupes, why not offer them to your CSA customers for additional charge. I know some families who would eat 3 to 5 melons a week, during the season. Jay

Courtney, You know, I just had to pass on the USO story to you after I read it in Sunday's paper because positive media coverage on any military issue is so rare anymore! We have turtles everywhere this year, much more so than in past years. Even in a year where I rarely see a turtle, there is always one or two plodding around the yard and garden, eating whatever strikes their fancy. This year, there's more than one or two! They are even digging up bermuda grass and laying their eggs right in the yard. Hmmm? An animal that digs up bermuda grass? I need more of those! Cutworms are sneaky. I can have 50 bush bean plants and they'll take out only 1 or 2 here or there, some years. Other years, they go right down the row and saw them all down. Some of them eat everything they cut. Some don't. Sometimes what I think is cutworm damage is actually plants being gnawed in two and then devoured by pillbugs/sowbugs (Slug-go snail and slug killer takes care of those bugs). Sometimes birds will nip young plants in half and it resembles cutworms. So, a lot of times, if you can't see the pest while it is active, it is hard (impossible!) to be sure what the pest is. Congratulations on the harvest! I love fresh chives. For a few years I had huge rows of chives as a edging on both sides of a raised bed that was 4' wide by 30' long. Last year, they mostly died when I gave up and quit watering the garden in June. However, a few came back and I transplanted them into my cottage border. Your Veggie Garden 'lessons learned' are priceless. I am here to tell you that learning these things 'the hard way' is the most fun! I agree that some weeds are good in the garden. By being smart and observing what bugs like what weeds, you will learn which weeds to allow as a 'trap crop' for pests. The main reason I interplant herbs and flowers in my veggie garden is because they attract beneficial insects OR trap harmful insects making them easy to catch/kill, OR improve the flower of a veggie (like borage and basil improve tomato flavor). It doesn't hurt that they are pretty or that they smell good too! This is also the reason I plant a mixed cottage border around my veggie bed. For what it is worth, I ALWAYS plant too many pumpkins and winter squash and ornamental gourds and I ALWAYS plant them too close together. Some years, disease and pests will wipe out some of them, but since I overplanted, I always have plenty. In a good year, I will have wheelbarrow loads and they make GREAT late summer to late autumn displays around the yard, garden and barn. After that, I give them to the dogs to play with and to the compost pile to feed it. Often, the pumpkins/witer squash/gourds reseed in the dog yard where they climb the fence, and in the compost pile, where they cover it up and hide it pretty well. Oh, if you have a fairly cool space to store them, some pumpkins and winter squash can be stored for MONTHS and then eaten, too. I have kept fall-harvest pumpkins in my tornado shelter until as late as February and March some years, and they were just fine for cooking/eating. I have also kept fall-harvested winter squash in my garage through the spring without a serious loss of quality. I am glad you are having a wonderful June in the garden. Now, if it would only stop raining! Dawn

Very nice harvest, sir! Just excellent! First pic - Naga. Second pic - Naga....but has something else going on, too....deeper lobes, like Habanero influence. Third pic - the big pile - those are the most Bhut-like of the bunch, with a few squat Naga looking pods, which could simply be smaller Bhuts. Fourth pic - intermediate form, like an elongated Naga, but certainly Bhut playing a strong role. Fifth pic - solo pod - definitely a Naga shape, but more blistered skin than the Naga Dorset or Naga Morich that I've grown. That's how I'd break 'em down. If you're familiar with the distinct flavor of Bhut versus Naga...well, that'll help narrow it down considerably. Josh