Let the harvests continue!  I love to see beans curing in a jar on the window sash.  Those are the first black turtle beans, and later there will be some kidneys and some Hopi orange Limas. And I’ve been drying sage from the herb bed to use in recipes in the winter.

We’ve been eating green beans and Eliza’s Thai yard long purple beans.  My friend across the alley  just commented that they look like snakes. They actually do, except they’re purple.  They are doing great this year.

King of the Garden Limas and Hopi orange Limas are both growing crazy and producing lots of flowers and now some pods are forming.  Last year the Hopis were done blooming when the Kings started, so there was no problem with cross pollination, but this year they’re both blooming at the same time, so I might have a problem next year, with beans not giving me true varieties. The bean pergola has all 5 poles covered with bean plants and the pyramid inside has the Hopis.  Then there are Brussels sprouts plants and two acorn squash plants in there too.

We’ve been eating squash too, the little patty pan ones and some acorns.  Acorns are doing very well in several locations.

We have a few spaghetti squash laying around down there too, waiting till the stems turn brown and gnarly, the right time to take them off their vines.

We’ve been eating lots of tomatoes too and started freezing a few for winter, and we’ll have tomatoes for a long time yet. There are 12 tomato plants of 8 different varieties.

We have a new thing this year, cos I always like to try new stuff.  When I sent for seeds in the spring, one company sent me some free seeds for golden crispy melons.  They are supposed to fit in the palm of your hand and get yellow when ripe.  You eat the skin, just slice the thing and eat it and they’re supposed to be really sweet.  Interesting little things and I can’t wait to taste them.  Two will soon be ripe.

I’ve also been eating and freezing collards, and we’ve been eating jalapenos and I just froze some of them with cream cheese in to make jalapeno poppers.  I also canned two jars of pickled ones for Eliza, who is brave enough to eat pickled jalapenos.  We’re also eating cucumbers and I froze a bunch of containers of cucumbers and onions in a sweet brine, with dill from the herb bed and a bit of a chili pepper in each container for a little kick.

But you still can’t eat everything, and my wildflowers have been such a joy since so many started blooming. I’ve started taking seeds from them as they dry, to make sure the bed is fuller yet next year.

So the harvest began a while ago and will continue for a while yet, different things at different times.  The blessings of the earth to eat now, and save for later as well.  It’s all good.