Monday Aug 27

This is more like it.  Beans, peppers, squash, tomatoes, okra and cucumbers.  And I’ve actually got enough fixings to make some refrigerator salsa.  The small patch of Provider beans gave me several pickings of snap beans. 

These beans got hit hard by beetles a few weeks ago, probably both bean leaf beetles and Japanese beetles.  It’s strange because I saw only a few of them, but over two days when I wasn’t paying attention they did a lot of damage.   I picked all the beans including small ones and sprayed with pyrethrin/rotenone.  That apparently did the trick but the damage was done. 

If there’s such a thing as a hard and fast gardening rule, it’s that disease follows insect attacks.  So I’m seeing a lot of rust and bean mosaic on these beans.  Some of the beans have pits on them and are unusable. 

I’m going to get one more picking out of this patch then pull up the plants and turn over the soil to expose any grubs.  I probably should have done this after the last picking.  The next patch of beans has two rows of Roma II beans and two rows of Dragon Langerie, a Dutch wax bean with purple spots.  I got the first picking of Roma beans on Sunday, along with burgundy okra, Carmen peppers, ancho peppers and Supersonic tomatoes. 

Also hot peppers.  The greenhouse where I bought the plant called it Hot Poppa but I think they also go by a different name.  Heat level is comparable to Jalapeno.  There’s also one Holy Mole pepper.  The first one I tried was surprisingly hot.  I did not think mole peppers were hot.  So now I’ve got enough fixings for a little fresh salsa. 

For the week:  Tomatoes 3 lb 10 oz, Cocozelle squash 3 lbs 1 oz, snap beans 1 lb 15 oz, okra 9 oz, cucumber 1 lb 9 oz, peppers 11 oz.  Total 9.6 lbs.  Fish filets 14 oz.  Produce for the year 118 lbs.  The updated spreadsheet is in the 2012 tab.