Monday August 28

Another very productive week in the bean patch.  Speaking of beans, they have been producing strongly for a couple of weeks now, after the Japanese beetles tore through them and virtually stopped the beans in their tracks.  I can't imagine how many beans could have been picked if it wasn't for these pests.  So far I've gotten nearly 30 pounds of beans, most of them pole beans from a 9 foot long trellis.  So here goes, in what I believe is chronological order.  First a picking of Fortex, Musica, and Provider beans:

Yes, I froze a lot of beans this week.  Next some sweet peppers, Carmen, the beautiful yellow Mama Mia Giallo, and a paprika, along with some Millionaire okra and mystery squash, both of which continue to trickle in (actually, I prefer squash at a trickle, it doesn't overwhelm).

More beans, more Carmen peppers, and more okra.

Every day I was picking tomatoes, many of which I gave away.  These are some Better Boys.  A heavy rain last week caused many of the Better Boys to split.

Sunday was salsa canning day.  I picked a batch of Plum Regal sauce tomatoes, along with a few Romas.  The quality of all the tomatoes is definitely going downhill.  Many of the sauce tomatoes were blemished badly enough that they were good only for the compost bin.  Some of the tomatoes below were put in the windowsill to ripen further.  There were enough sauce tomatoes and Better Boys to make a batch of salsa.

There were just enough hot peppers available to free me from buying any at the store.  The smaller red peppers are Fish. The Jalapeno plants have started producing again.  They managed to send up some stems above the anchos that have been crowding them out.  These have been really excellent jalapenos, very hot for the variety.

Here is the weekly 'peppers on the grill' picture.  Yum.

Now that the adjacent eggplant has been removed, the Fish pepper plant has more space.  The picture doesn't do it justice, it's a gorgeous plant and would look great in a pot.  The stripes in the peppers slowly fade as they redden, but never disappear completely.

Lastly, another picking of beans.  For the week, 7.4 pounds of beans, 16 pounds of tomatoes, and various other goodies. To see what other growers are getting from their gardens, head on over to Our Happy Acres.