Red Peppers!

I've got a red pepper! I couldn't help myself, I picked it! And it's gorgeous! Last year, I didn't have the patience. I picked all the peppers when they were green.

I also have a few ripe banana peppers for canning!

Another Good Harvest!

And this doesn't include the 2 zucchinis and tomato that I gave my parents.

Also, it's time to start thinking about the fall garden! I ordered a micro-blocker to start lettuce, Bok Choy (again), and maybe carrots! Since we'll be out of town until August 12th, I have arranged for a neighbor to water the garden, if needed, while we're away, and I will start the fall crops when we return.

A Rainy Summer Day?

No problem! From my novice gardener perspective, I'd say this has already been a great gardening season. Lots of warm temperatures, plenty of sunshine, and just enough rain! I've hardly had to water the garden with a hose at all. I can remember 2 times and maybe Morgan got out there 2 times as well. This is great. And everything is producing in abundance.

Next up....preserving the harvest via canning?

Pasta with Roasted Garlic and Grape Tomatoes

I forgot to take this picture before we ate most of last night's dinner. Morgan picked more grape tomatoes (is anyone else getting scared that these grape tomatoes might take over the world?), he also came home with fresh basil (and a yellow squash thingie that we're not even growing*) and whipped up a roasted garlic-tomato-basil "sauce" and served it with quinoa pasta (not as bad as I thought it'd be-the quinoa pasta. I didn't think the sauce would be bad) and Parmesan. The whole thing was so delicious! And went from garden to table in under an hour!

Here's the after picture!

*Morgan didn't steal the yellow squash thingie. Another gardener gave it to him. Love the community garden! Luckily, Morgan did not accept his extra zucchini!!

For comparison...

The garden as of July 13, 2012.

Who sees those banana peppers in the front? :)

Garden Update!

I need a scale. Someday I'll need a produce scale so that I can better track how much I'm harvesting. Until then....we just sort of eyeball things. For example, this looks like a good harvest. See picture.

And another picture showing what I did with it - kabobs (combined with the zucchini harvest from a few nights earlier).

And then we went down to the park by the water (our new favorite spot) and grilled it along with some burgers and s'mores! Sorry the pictures are out of order.

It's a toss up between Morgan, Healy, and me who liked it the most!

The Garden Giveth!

Last night I picked 3 more zucchini, about 6 semi-ripe Roma tomatoes, and maybe 2 dozen grape tomatoes. I picked some under ripe Romas so that it's less stress on my already stressed out plants (because I haven't been great at pruning them) and because they can ripen off the vine. We also have lots of string beans - last weekend I made some into a quiche with whatever greens (beet greens to be exact) and broccoli I had left over from last week's CSA share.

It's safe to say, Morgan and I have enough vegetables to sustain ourselves for a while.

In addition to what we're growing, we also pick up our CSA every Tuesday. Yesterday, I picked up 2 heads of lettuce (yum! You'd be surprised how much we love lettuce), more beets (uh oh, I still haven't consumed last week's beets...and I say "I" and not "we" because Morgan won't go near it), Kale, Swiss chard, scallions, carrots, zucchini (lord, help me to consume these thy gifts!), parsley, and something else green...

I still feel like this is just the beginning of the tomatoes. I see plenty of green tomatoes on the vines and even more flowers turning into fruit. Suffice to say, no matter how much we love grape tomatoes, 5 plants is too much for us!

Is it too soon to buy my canning equipment?