Vegetable Abundance

Yesterday's harvest from the front yard.

This is a time of abundance in the garden, which means we are busy in the kitchen. I put up tomatillo salsa in jars over the weekend, and I blanched more green beans for the freezer. Joe has kept the dehydrator full and humming with tomatoes and okra, and he's smoked some of the hot peppers, then dried them and ground them to powder to store the full, amazing flavor in tightly sealed jars.

Even though the garden still is fairly bursting with good food, it is time to begin the transition to cool season crops, which will provide fresh vegetables in winter.

Around here, the cucumber and summer squash plants should be in bad enough shape to provide some of the space for that transition. Not only have assorted beetles, bugs, and mildews damaged many of the leaves, but the cucumber pickleworm also has shown up in some area gardens, making much of the fruit unappealing. So far, most of my cucumbers are unaffected, but I've seen some very "holey" cukes from other gardens.

In my garden, I've planted more basil so we will have enough to make pesto to freeze; I've pulled up the pickling cukes (they've done less well than the slicers, which are mostly still good), and much of the zucchini. I've planted one last stand of zinnias for the pollinators, and I expect to plant one more patch of bush beans. I have cleaned up a flat that will be used for starting cool season crops, and I expect to turn under the buckwheat, to make space for the carrots, soon.

Exciting times!