1st Day of school

I like to take the kids out front and grab a few photos in their new school clothes.  It was a bit windy so I they have on jackets that don't coordinate but that's the way it was so that's how I photographed them.  I'm looking forward to seeing them this afternoon.  

Of course I am busy with this - the largest harvest of cucumbers so far, about 4 lbs. 

And I need to get to work on some more of this - can you see the jar on the far right - half gone already. I can't help but scarf down this salsa.  Love it!

And the very last of the green beans.  I planted more but guess what? The grasshoppers have eaten every last leaf off the new plants.  And they have eaten the carrots to the ground.  And now they are eating my tomato plants.  I'm not sure how to fight grasshoppers this thick.  They are about every 3 inches in our grass.  gross.  Anyway, if you want to preserve green beans in the freezer, blanch them for a minute or two in boiling water.  Then toss them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer.  After 3 hours or so pull them out and stick them in the freezer container of your choice.

Harvest Monday - August 22nd

Well, you win some, you loose some.  This past week was an interesting one.  On Tuesday I spent the day fighting off the Army Worms.  I thought at first they were tomato fruit worms and a neighbor called them cutworms.  Apparently they are all related. But I sent an email to the USU extension services with my bowl full of those nasty things (see below) and Taun said that they came from the alfalfa field and I was lucky that the ground was not moving.  Uhm, seriously?  If I had that many I don't think I'd ever garden again. I have faith things will be better - see, I'm starting more lettuce.

 I did have a crazy run in with the tomato hornworm.  I found a one inch tiny one first - not bad.  Then as I was shaking the only roma tomato in a cage this big fat hornworm flopped on the ground. It was at least 3/4 inch wide and 5 inches long.  Gag!  I screamed and then jumped back a few feet.  I lost half my roma tomatoes which is sad because I really wanted to try making my own tomato sauce because I purchased one of these this year.  I don't know if the plants will recover enough to give me some more.  I ripped off all the larger roma tomatoes - green or otherwise and checked for holes and if they were good, they got washed in soapy water and placed in the window as you can see here.  I have 8 roma plants and I don't think I'm going to get much after all.  

See - as my friend Keiko said, "I think I just threw up in my mouth." No, I did not touch the hornworm - I scooped it into the bowl with the lid.  Yes, I did pick off all those army worms by hand.  Thank you Atlas garden gloves. And having said that, I will never buy leather gardening gloves again.  The nitrile touch garden gloves have spoiled me.  They wash well and wick the moisture away.  I LOVE them.  They fit well.  And I don't get dirt down into the tips of the glove fingers like I did with the leather gloves. I blame the seams for that.  Atlas nitrile touch garden gloves rock!

I did have some luck on Thursday and harvested this nice bunch of tomatoes, 1 more squash, and 4 lemon cucumbers. Loving the lemon cucs.  

And go check out Daphne's Dandelions to see fun a beautiful harvests from all over the world. It's also interesting to see how far behind I am living here in the tops of the mountains.  And I have to share this photo again.  Can you blame me?

Garden critters

Click on this first one to see the first garden critter.  She's a good one.  Lady bugs are wonderful! I saw plenty of them this week.  This photo looks like I used flash but I didn't.  The clouds were moving so fast that my aperture priority had a hard time figuring things out.

And I've also seen plenty of these.  What are they? And why are they eating EVERYTHING? Seriously.  I found them munching on my jalapeno plants and I rarely see anything on those.  They are everywhere I look and that means the road, the house, at the neighbors.They love onions too.  Tomatoes, yep. Pumpkins, yes sir. Cabbage - for sure. Green beans - it's eating a stem that ended up on the back porch.  Can I repel them somehow? 

Harvest Monday - August 15th

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions and scroll on down to see what everyone else is harvesting.

On the 10th I canned 10 Quarts of green beans.  I'm loving the wide mouth jars for this.  I used my 23 quart Presto Pressure Canner.

On the 12th I harvested the first of my tomatoes and 1 squash.  I have 2 squash plants and they are producing just the right amount for what my husband and I can eat.

Here is today's harvest, August 15th.  There is an infestation of caterpillars.  They have orange red heads and black and grey stripe the long way.  They are all over the house and it was amazing to me that they were on everything and didn't care that it was a jalapeno, pumpkin, or onion.  I'll post a photo when I can calm down enough to get one.  They've just about destroyed my green onions.

If you've never tried a lemon cucumber you need to.  It's delicious! This one was a little bigger than the size of a baseball.

I accidentally got my first heirloom tomato.  Oops.  I love the character. This is a pink brandywine that's still green of course. I'm going to let it sit in the window sill and see if it'll ripen.

 I also did my 3rd green bean picking.  It's slowing down.  They cut the alfalfa in the field next to the garden and the grasshoppers have moved in.  Wish they'd eat the caterpillars instead of the green bean blossoms.  

And this had me super happy.  The jalapenos are starting to look good.  I didn't really need this many but I did chop up 4 and needed 3 for my pico de gallo.  It's heavenly to eat fresh pico from fresh produce.  I'll post photos soon.

I haven't done a total before so I thought I'd start today.  I think it's such a great idea and something I want to include in my garden journal from now on.

Today's Total

Alliums: 5.15 lb

Cabbage: .88 lb

Cucumber: 1.1 lb

Green Beans: 4.41 lbs

Jalapenos: .25 lb

Kohlrabi: .10 lb

Squash: .44 lb

Tomato: 3.7 lbs

Trellising Lemon Cucumbers

I love trellising cucumbers.  Although I haven't much to trellis this year.  One of them has made it to the top.  Another on the way.  The rest ... taking their time! Isn't this lemon cucumber beautiful?

You can see the blossoms here.  I can hardly wait to eat the sliced lemon cucumbers with tomatoes - oh and just pour some Marukan Rice Vinegar over it.  You might add onion if you want a bit of a punch.  Red onion is the best but any yellow onion will do.  It's a quick and refreshing summer salad.  Chill for an hour or so,  Perfection!