CSA share

• 2 pieces patty pan squash
• 1/4 lb field greens
• 1 head lettuce
• 1 head broccoli
• spring onions, 1 bunch
• scallions, 1 bunch
• 1 bunch basil
• 1 bunch parsley
• 1 quart blueberries

I also picked up a dozen eggs for $4.00.

We Have Taters!

After the "Would Have Been Potatoes" post (photos here), I didn't think there was any hope of getting a harvest out of those Yukon Golds, but thankfully I was wrong! I went out to yank up more dying plants, and voila, I found potatoes! Some were quite small- cherry tomato size so I put them back in the dirt. Maybe they will put up shoots next year? Of coarse this would only be a good thing if I don't have any funky potato diseases. Anyway, these potatoes came in at around 2 lbs., and I am doing a happy dance!

Planning for a Fall and Spring Harvest

Now is the time to be thinking about, if not planting crops for a Fall harvest. This is a generalized list of crops you can be sowing now:

• rutabaga
• globe and bunching onions
• peas
• beans
• brussels sprouts
• cole crops
• carrots (try a good main crop/storage variety)
• beets

Many crops can be "wintered over" for a Spring Harvest, these have various planting times depending on the number of days to maturity, but a general rule of thumb is to sow these in August. Some examples are:

• early carrots
• leeks
• some chards and cabbages
• rhubarb

I had planned on experimenting with wintering over but have found my garden with little room to spare. How can I start a Fall pea crop when the Spring crop is still producing heavily? Where am I going to stick those Brussels Sprouts? Ugh, and the idea of starting leek and onion seedlings makes me cringe, we just broke down the seed station from the winter that had been a garden catch-all for us all season. At least I got a carrot and bean sowing in this past weekend.

Seeds of Change has a nice list of seeds they recommend for a Four Season Harvest here, and this is a tip from Mother Earth News-

"Most important for winter harvests—after the selection of the hardiest
vegetables and varieties available—is the application of deep mulch. We put
12 or more inches of dry hay over the beds before freezing temperatures
begin in the fall (plastic sheeting on top keeps water out). That way, we're
still eating winter crops when the spring garden starts producing its first
greens. And that's a gardener's thrill!"

Most importantly, don't forget to order that garlic!!

Garden in Bloom

Mystery Eggplant Flower

***

A Hummingbird's View
(I have always liked peering in the petal to find the Foxglove's 'dragonfly')

***

Black Beauty Zucchini Blossom

Pickles It Is!

I was surprised to find another handful of cukes ready for picking over the weekend so I whipped up a batch of refrigerator pickles tweaking the recipe just a bit to suit my tastes. SO EASY! And it turns out you just scrub away those nasty spines. I started out with a potato brush but that wasn't cutting it, so next I tried a popsicle stick (just happened to be there) and it turned out to be the perfect tool, go figure. I can't wait to try these bad boys, but I should probably leave them to soak for a few days first.

Well, leaving them to sit before tasting is no longer an option since after taking this photograph I grabbed a fork and had a warm pickle. I am a little embarrassed to show my lack of patience, but no regrets. Even when warm it was a tasty pickle. Very sweet with a bit of tang.

On a side note I planted more pole beans and carrots this weekend. The beans went in a raised bed and on a straw bale. The straw bale was originally planted with melons but critters took care of those for me. I am beginning to wonder if I will get one darned melon out of all those seedlings I planted.

Lemon Rosemary Cookies

Rosemary, one of my favorite herbs. I am always envious of the large bushes I see growing in the Mediterranean and on the West Coast. My plants never get any bigger than the one pictured here, though some grow tall and others sprawl out. But whats not to love about an herb whos name means "dew of the sea"? Rosemary belongs to the mint family and there are many, many varieties out there. For a descriptive list visit the Mountain Valley Growers site. If only they were winter hardy in Massachusetts!

Rosemary pairs well with so many foods. It is a wonderful companion to all meats, blue cheese, and many fruits such as apples, cranberries, and citrus. It is best grown from cuttings rather than seeds, see here for instructions. This is a new discovery for me and I plan on trying it with my current plants before the winter comes.

One of my favorite yet unusual ways to use rosemary is by baking it into light lemony cookies. Below is a wonderful recipe taken from Out of the Earth: A Heritage Farm Coast Cookbook. It is a recipe I don't make often enough and I hope that it will soon become one of your favorites too!

Lemon Rosemary Cookies

• 1 C sugar, 3 tbsp. butter, softened, 2 eggs, well beaten; cream butter and sugar until fluffy with an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat thoroughly.
• 3 tsp. lemon rind, 1 tbsp. rosemary, chopped fine; fold into egg mixture.
• 1 1/2 C flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. baking powder; Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Fold into egg mixture.

Drop by sm. spoonfulls onto parchment-lined cookie sheet. Flatten with cup dipped in sugar. Bake for 7 minutes at 325 degrees. Makes 2 dozen.

Tomato Disease Identification, Garden Update

Upon venturing out to the garden today I found more bad news in what looks to be Early Blight on my Yellow Pear Tomatoes.

I will have to do a bit more research, but upon quick inspection on this site, (which is one of my favorites for tomatoes), I appear to have a match. It would make sense with all this wet weather, I think disease is really starting to set in in many Northeast gardens. I am contemplating a weekly spray to try and combat already existing and future diseases with Serenade Garden Spray. Next year I will be sure to have a copper solution ready as well.

***

My strawberries are all over the place. The $30 spent at Johnny's for 2 bunches of plants (Honeoye and Cabot) for the hanging bags is turning out to be a bust. They have been producing lots of fruit, but with all the rain most of them have gotten moldy before they ripen. This problem started later for me than most folks in my area since they are off the ground, but because of the plants immaturity they also set fruit later than established plants. I chose to not pinch off flowers their first year as you typically would since they are hanging; the plants are unable to send off runners therefore the theory is they have a bit more energy to send to the roots and developing fruit.

The plants are not as bushy as those that were planted in the ground in the beginning of June as ground cover (click here), however that batch was picked up locally and were already quite large. They have been sending off runners like crazy and I am having a hard time keeping up with the flower pinching. Even the runners are sending up bunches of pink flowers which I spent quite a bit of time removing this morning. There are a handful of berries that snuck by me and they are starting to turn, I am actually looking forward to trying one these mystery variety berries if the birds don't get to them first.

Lanky Strawberry plants in hanging bags

***

I did a bit of harvesting today as well. I desperately need to cut more lettuce but the CSA has been keeping our crisper drawer well stocked with greens, so my garden waits. I had one tomato ready for picking on three different plants, one Big Beef, one Juliet, and one Sungold. What gives? The size of the fruits is noticeably smaller than earlier in the season, another side effect of our weather no doubt (I think I have a case of The Incredible Shrinking Tomatoes!).

Maybe the cool night temperatures are to blame? Mid fifties is a common occurrence lately. Along with the singleton tomatoes is a very lonely strawberry and a trio of cukes. I certainly don't have enough to make pickles so it looks as though they will be destined for the salad plate. Johnny's Seeds does recommend picking these 'Northern Pickling' cukes "frequently at a small size". Hmm, maybe these are already to big?

Thunder? What Thunder?

Five minutes ago I was sitting on the deck editing this blog under a rare blue sky, here is what happened:

(And yes, I just learned the hard way that camera video can not be re-oriented like a photo. I am technically challenged, so tilt your head as far to your left as possible for optimum viewing.)

Just what we need, more rain.

'Would-Have-Been' Potatoes; CSA Pick-Up

OK, well, I can't upload images to blogger right now or I would show you the misery. My potato patch is being decimated by something- blight? I now have a huge empty spot in the patch (insert photo here) because I had to rip all this wilted, mushy, withered material out (insert photo here). So then I dug, all the while going deeper and saying a prayer to the Potato Gods that maybe, just maybe I could salvage something from all of this mess.....and this was what I got: (insert photos 1 and 2 here). Sigh. *EDIT: PHOTOS IN POST BELOW*

Today's 1/2 share included:

• loaf of bread or pint of blueberries
• 1/2 lb kale
• head of lettuce
• bunch of spring onions
• 2 pieces of summer squash

(The full share folks also received mixed greens, currants, 2 bunches of herbs and an additional 2 squash)

I am trying to publish this post below my last since the photo feature is back....

The decimated potato patch:

My pile of removed foliage:

What I was left with after praying for something salvageable (and digging): the tiniest potatoes EVER! (There were quite a few of these whoppers on the roots.)

The End.