Harvest Snapshot: July 22nd

A wonderful assortment of veggies greeted me upon my return. No strawberries in this picture, as I wandered through the garden munching them. We lost a few to overripeness, but most were cheerfully ready for a garden snack. A number of zucchini came and left while I was on vacation, faithfully transported into the office or eaten outright by my darling hubby, Mike.


Flowers abounded, as my dahlias burst into bloom during early July, and have been going strong ever since.


The summer squash that I planted too early, and which were shocked by cold, are now starting to tenatively offer up flowers, and even a squash or two. The small white patty pan squash and the two-color yellow-green summer squash are, I hope, the first of many.


Some of the cherry tomatoes were splitting from a daytime watering (wups!) but they all went promptly into the freezer, making a nice flat quart bag. Ditto with the non-cherry ones, which needed halving or quartering and went into a separate container. I like to freeze them flat, for quick freezing and thawing, and also in the right quantity for most of my cooking, which is for only two folks, me and Mike.


I was really shocked at how much change can happen in only a couple of weeks, though, when those weeks are in July and the hot-weather plants kick into high gear. Wow! Bush beans that had barely come over the top of a six-inch (15 - 20 cm) support mesh are now two feet tall and covered in flowers. Their counterparts planted two weeks previously rewarded me with a big double handful of beans, shown here.


Vining beans, such as my 2nd crop of Runners and my Chinese Noodle beans, had just come up and reached barely knee-high when I left on July 8th. The same plants today are over my head, nine and six feet tall (3 and 2 meters) respectively. The second planting of maize corn was similar height, knee-high, and has now doubled in size, while the first planting has sprouted ears in many places. One, as you can see in the picture, was ready to pick!