It's actually shivery-cool this morning, although sunny at the farmette. Had to wear a sweatshirt to get the paper. (Yes we still get weekend delivery of the Star). It's full-on harvest season. Everything is ripening at the same time, per usual. I must have picked a bushel of green beans from just the four plants that came up. Tomatoes are coming on stronger, the garlic has been pulled, the beets are ready, and I have two full rows of carrots that should come up...but they can wait.
Having all these veggies pile up with only two human mouths to feed mean it's also freezing and canning time. This year, I've done slightly different recipes to spice things up a bit.
Some of the beans were pickled in a brine that included dill and chili flakes. I've never pickled beans before. Looking forward to tasting them...although the recipe says I should wait for three weeks to really get the flavour infused. We'll see if I have the strength of will to resist.
Rob and I also started our tomatopalooza by doing down a measly two pints of sauce. We put in 20 plants(?!) While the tomatoes were smaller because of the drought, we're still going to get about two tonnes (or so) of produce. Which means a future filled with bigger batches of sauce, chili sauce, chutney, salsa, BLTs, and whatever else I can dream up to make use of the lovely red fruit.
We ratcheted back on the beets this year. Four rows last year just about killed me. So I went back to merely two. That was still enough to make four pints of lovely pickles. This year, I added cumin seed to the usual whole cloves for flavour, so again, we'll see what transpires in the magical world of preserving.
The garlic is now hanging high and dry in the basement. They were the first to get pulled late last week. It'll be another two or three weeks before they'll be ready to dice and slice into yummy stir-fries and pasta sauce and just about everything else the humans in the Harris-Wilson-Wilson-Harris household eats.
Hobbes was a big help.
Despite belly-aching about having to irrigate the garden for most of the summer so far, I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to harvest such a productive - really bountiful - garden. Until next week.