Screamed at the deer tonight that I'm going to eat them with cheap BBQ sauce because they don't rate steak sauce.

My zucchini plant is about 4' across with lots of flowers but not squash yet. About two weeks into the sun gold tomatoes.... ahh chili with fresh tomatoes. My first red jalapeno this weekend... a load of green ones. The cayenne look nice but still all green... few days yet. A nice healthy new cayenne plant that I grew from my own seed. The old 3-4 y/o plants are still putting out a few peppers. Habenera/red savina are looking like they will sprout peppers any day now.

Everything else is being shy. We really need some more rain. A cloud wet the road a couple miles from my house but nothing here. Washed my truck today so it should rain hard for days...

: )
lyra

Lyra, it's supposed to rain here every day this week, but nothing yet but sunshine. I oughta be a meteorologist, they can be wrong all the time and still get paid, LOL.

I haven't gotten peppers yet, and the SunGolds aren't ripe either, but they are just loaded with tomatoes. I did get some fresh ones from the farm market, they start theirs in hoop houses.

I could have some young collards, those are big enough, but I've been eating the beet greens and so I can wait...

The purple cabbage is starting to head up already too.

Annie

I can't wait! I'll be hitting the farmers markets and road stands on a regular rotation starting this week.

I did get 20lbs of shell peas, they are in the freezer.
Don't ask how much they ended up costing. I only got 9 - 2 cup packages.... :(( Pure gold!

Nancy

Wow Annie, those 'taters and green beans look awesome! My tomato plants are looking better than they have in almost a decade. The only 'maters I've picked were from the GH and they were pretty good, but the only tomato so far from the garden has been 1 single Sunsugar cherry....which is supposed to be a bit sweeter than Sungold if you can believe it. It was awesome. Other than that I've been picking cukes and the tomatoes are coming on strong...nothing else ripe but very close. I love summer!

Can't wait for the heirloom tomatoes to start rolling in. The heat has been great but a full day of rain would be wonderful.

Duane

Nancy, I love fresh peas but that is the downside. They're a PIA to shell and they are 2/3 pod. Sigh. Nothing is perfect in this world, I guess...

Duane, sweeter than SunGold? Wow, it would be like eating candy, I think. I'm waiting on the Rutgers, they are coming along nicely but it'll be a couple of weeks, at least. The Big Rainbow that I planted is full of blossoms but no tomatoes yet, I think it's a later cultivar.

We could use a couple of days of rain here too, we're not desperate but we're not flooded either. And it's supposed to be 90 again tomorrow, I've got to go out to the farm to meet the farrier and pick potato bugs off the fingerling potatoes.

It's still better than an afternoon in the office, even without air conditioning!

Annie

Stay cool out there Annie!

Thanks, Tami. If it gets too hot and dusty, I'll come home and jump in the pool!

Annie

Your garden produce looks absolutely beautiful Annie. I would love to taste one of those little beets...they look so good and fresh!
And I know the taste of home picked green beans as I used to grow them here too. Finding them on the vine and picking them is half the fun of growing those beans.

SharonCb

Darn I wish I had my own garden, those looks so fresh and yummy! Unfortunately I never good at planting :(

Sharon, I'm not sure picking beans is actually fun, in any sense of the work that I'm familiar with, LOL. The beans are yummy, though.

And I love beets. I just can't figure out whether I like the tops better, or the root...

mysuperbed, planting isn't an issue, you just have to get them to grow after you plant. (grin) I can grow a vegetable garden without any problems, but I sure have issues with house plants and flowers. My only surviving houseplant is an aloe...

Annie

Nice. My beets rotted out, and I'm afraid the same happened with the second planting. Potatoes are just starting to blossom, DH spotted a pea pod yesterday so we'll have sugar snaps and snow peas soon. Maincrop peas are just starting to bloom. Carrots were nearly washed out...they'll be late at best. Beans have about four leaves....they took forever to come up. I may get some scallopinis and zucchinis by September, sighhh. We are getting some really nice greens, though....you'd think it was May. Even the huckleberries are late. And pocket gophers got some of my best garlic....grrrrrr!

We got everything in early this year, but it just sat. And sat. We put in drip irrigation and haven't needed it yet. But we're finally getting some sun and heat and things are starting to go nuts.

Ooooo...and we have three pie cherries on our baby tree....there is hope!

I'm loving those potatoes and beans but I'll have to pass on the beets. Maybe it's time for that seven year rule thing with the beets.

After giving you a hard time earlier this year about my tomatoes on the vine my crop hasn't produced enough for a batch of salsa. I yanked my plants last night and will rely on the farmers market again this year. Oh well, I think I'm done with growing my own.

David

LOL, David, I have a bunch of little green tomatoes, my old reliable Rutgers might outdo your early tomatoes after all!

Figure out a way to ship "real" fresh garden tomatoes and I'll share, it looks like I'll have bushels, barring some late blight or other disaster.

Annie

Looks great Annie - and I would welcome all of it including the beets! As far as early tomatoes, I am days from harvesting the first Yellow Pear tomatoes. Seems almost 20 straight days of over 90 have put the plants into overdrive. Unfortunately, the last couple over 100 it seemed even the bees were afraid to come out so ther seem to be a lot of unpollinated blooms all of a sudden.

And I would LOVE to get my hands on some new potatoes like that. They look fantastic!

Alexa

Annie, Your garden looks great. I'm with you though, I'm not sure beans are very much fun to pick. Every other day, I'm out there picking. Then finding recipes to use them up as fast as they are coming on. I do freeze some but prefer to eat them fresh. I have a recipe that I made up that is yummy. I saute green beans in butter until crisp tender, then I add fresh garlic, (hubby grows several varities) saute a little more and then soy sauce to taste. It is wonderful!!! Easy too.

Alexa, I don't usually dig the potatoes that small but what the heck, it was Independence Day!

lakemayor, I hate to pick beans. Hate it. I love the fresh beans, though, so I do it, LOL.

I'll definitely try your method of making them this summer!

Annie

I am so jealous! It will be a lean year in my veggie garden, only the toms and cukes were planted and are going strong, but the beans went in too late and then got rained/flooded out. I did get a good crop of chard and one jalapeno so far.

Annie, I love picking beans but it is a back killer.

Hey, 14 toms should keep me out of trouble.

Annie,

I'm jealous of those beets! Beets are a Fall/Winter crop here in SW GA. It seems like we have one week of Spring in March and then it goes straight into Summer...no more cool weather crops...they all start bolting. However, the tomatoes are coming in like gang busters now and I plan to can some of that famous salsa that everyone has talked about....let's see....what was the name of that salsa again?.....:)

Annie, I am jealous, too.
Of your beets, your green beans and your potatoes.

I really prefer both the beets and the potatoes when they are young like that.

As for which is better of the beets, the tops or the root?
That's easy!
Which ever one I am eating when you ask!
;>)

Rusty

Aunt tootie, I'm frankly surprised the beets are doing so well and are so sweet and good. It's been hot all summer, yesterday was 92F with 94% humidity, and beets tend to like it cooler but they're growing like crazy, so I'm happy and I'm not going to tell them they are cool weather crops. Sssshhhh.....they'll hear you.

I'm still a few weeks away from tomatoes, but I need to can 150 four ounce jars of that salsa for my daughter's wedding, it's a harvest/autumn theme and she thought it would make a unique favor. Yeah.....

Rusty, I love beets. I like them roasted or boiled, grated and raw in salads. I like harvard beets, I like pickled beets right out of the jar and cold boiled beets right out of the refrigerator and in borscht, nearly any way I can think of. And that's just the roots!

I do like the smaller beets and potatoes, but usually do not "sacrifice" them until they are a bit larger. I was impatient...

Annie

I have been picking potatoes and red onions like crazy. The potatoes are not officially ready, but I have so many plants I am stealing them early. Beets are about done, but it was a good year for beets.

I have 23 tomato plants covered with green tomatos. I cannot wait!!

I got pregnant right when the broccoli and snap peas were coming in, and apparently morning sickness for me means I cannot tolerate the smell of green veggies, sad isn't it? I had a magnificent broccoli crop, of which I tried to cook once then had to run from the house until all evidence of broccoli was removed and the house aired out. A friend of mine picked it all and froze it for me, hopefully I can enjoy it later. I still shudder when I think of how ill the smell made me LOL.

We do have lots of sweet corn and cukes from the farmers market. Right now my go to preggers snack food is sweet corn on the cob and cukes and onions marinated in vinegar water and salt (I don't like them sweet!).

No sweet corn here yet, but I brought home a handful of radishes, 4 zucchini and 3 small sweet onions yesterday. The farm market had fresh cucumbers, 20 cents each or 6 for $1, so I'm making cucumber and onion salad for supper.

Annie

Oh how I love this time of year!

No veggie garden for me, way too much shade. I have to settle for the farmers market. We have a great one nearby and right now it's new potatoes, baby beets, peas, radishes, green onions and beans.

Tomatoes and corn soon!!!

Annie, your garden veggies look great. I'm not a beet fan, but yours look so good that I am going to try them again. Any recipes?

We have been eating potatoes for about a month and put up corn this past Friday. I will probably put up more when the next planting gets ready. We do it in three plantings so if one flunks, and our first planting did, we have a couple more chances.

We have had really strange weather, it has been so hot and humid this summer and we don't usually have humidity. But the last week has been cool, humid and lots of rain. Rain in July is almost unheard of but we have had around 7 inches.

We plant potatoes and corn at the farm, but in my backyard garden I am getting squash, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. My black eye peas and okra are planted at the farm and should be ready soon.

We love meals that everything is homegrown, from the beef to the veggies. We don't raise chickens and only had fresh pork when my daughter was in school and showed them.

Such beautiful garden veggies Annie! When I was able to make a garden I always dug up a small pot of new potatoes two or three times before leaving them to grow into mature potatoes. I don't know anything better than small fresh dug new potatoes cooked and swimming in butter, that is unless it is the first garden tomato of the season.

It's the potatoes I'm lusting after! Love those little new potatoes! I need to get acquainted with beets....I have never cooked fresh beets. I believe it was Fats Domino that said "ain't that a shame"!

We have raised beds for our garden, only 2 of them but we get a fair amount of veggies. I've canned 7 qts. and 7 pts. of green beans and the new ones haven't come in yet. I don't do anything with cucumbers except to eat them fresh and it's just as well, I guess, since they didn't do well but we had more than enough to eat.

Our tomatoes were ripe the earliest I ever remember, mid- June and I have gorged on tomato sandwiches. I'll probably be making Chunky Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce this afternoon.

Thanks to Aldis 99 cents blueberries, I've made numerous jars of blueberry jam. Blueberry-Lime, Blueberry-Orange Marmalade, Blueberry-Peach and visited DD#1 in middle Tn and helped her make some of the same.

Yesterday I finished making 12 jars of Fig Jam. My little dwarf fig tree is doing well this year. Next is Fig Jam with Gewurztaminer and Pine Nuts. After that I'll probably finish with what I started...figs wrapped in prosciutto.

Now I'm going to lunch with friends.

jude

Great haul Annie. Hey put the kids to work shelling peas - make it a race with a reward or pay 'em LOL

DH planted our garden again this year, we started late so we only had the choice of Home Depot and Armstrong seeds/plants. I would have preferred sungolds and regular shiso but had to do with some non-descipt yellow grape tomatoes and red shiso. Those are coming in slow so I go out and hand water the few that came up LOL. Shiso is a treat for me. Rachelellen, I'll share with you.

We are done with the radishes - we have daikon still in the ground, and lots of beets, beans, corn, peppers (they don't do well), cucs, melons, carrots, basil, and of course my two fig trees are FULL. We have tons of bees around so I think we'll have healthy crops!

"I have never cooked fresh beets."

Here's a tip. Beets are a little different from other root crops. Don't peel them before boiling or they will bleed. In fact don't even trim the tops and the tap root very closely. Leave them an inch or two long. After cooking, cool the beets enough that you can handle them and rub the skins with your hands. The skin comes off easily.

Jim

I agree, Jim, I leave at least an inch of "stem" on the top of the beet and I don't trim the tap root at all. I boil them until they are tender, put them into cold water to cool, and then the skins just slide off. I eat them while I'm slicing them up.

Readinglady gave me a great sauce recipe, meant for parsnips and carrots but I like it on beets:

Parsnips and Carrots in Orange-Butter Sauce (from Miss Vickie's cookbook)
Vegetables:
1/2 lb. each parsnips and carrots, peeled and sliced
Rack in pc, add 1/2 cup water. At 15 psi cook 4 minutes. De-pressurize with cold water rapid method. Drain veggies in colander and set aside while making sauce.
Sauce:
1 stick butter
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. grated orange zest
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup orange juice
Melt butter in pc. Add sugar, zest and nutmeg. Stir cornstarch into juice and add, whisking as sauce thickens. Return veggies, tossing gently until well coated. Serves 4-5.

Annie

Annie, I think I neglected to comment on your gorgeous photos of your gorgeous garden vegetables. I really like them. There is nothing better than veggies of that quality prepared in a simple way.

Jim

Threads like this make the CF the best of the GW!

Jessy... put them peppers in pots. They live for 3-4 years just fine. Peppers self pollinate. I have two cayenne plants that are so old I don't exactly remember... 3-5 years! Already two red jalapenos... and this is Michigan.... all the green jalapenos I could want. A new cayenne bush from my own seed loaded with large green peppers. Even the nuclear Red Savinas are putting out little peppers. Planted most in used plastic coffee cans (can't get Renee's anymore).

My SSY tomatoes are a hoot. Some red, some early, some nice early and sweet. Don't care... I gots toms.

: )
lyra

You are making me hungry, and I'm not much of a veggie eater!

greenmulberry, congratulations! And I hope you can eat broccoli in the future. After 26 years, I still can't bear the smell of rum!

Tami

So jealous here! Do you spend a lot of time in your garden? Mine is not doing well and I thought I gave it so much TLC. Enjoy your harvest - looks perfect.