Sweet Local Farm

The garden keeps delivering. This is what I picked this morning:

It seems early for winter squash but then again everything is early this year.

Ripe tomatoes and yellow beans:

I picked the rest of the rhubarb and some rosemary so I can make that jam I talked about a few weeks ago.

The cucumbers are prolific this year. I think I’ll make some relish with these.

I love how colorful all the veggies are!

Just wanted to share the extremely gratifying bountiful harvest I picked this morning:

Yes, there are 25 cucumbers in that photo. I better get to work and make some pickles!

Also, here are some new fingerling potatoes we picked when we were harvesting the garlic.

I picked the first ripe tomatoes from the garden this morning. It was a tie between the Cherry Sweeties and the Early Ssubakus Aliana variety that we got as part of a trade from Alan Bishop at Bishop’s Homegrown. Both plants were started back in March and then transplanted into our unheated greenhouse. Both tomatoes tasted great, nothing beats a fresh garden grown tomato!

Tomatoes weren’t the only thing harvested this morning. I got three nice sized spaghetti squash, a couple yellow squash, zucchinis, cucumbers, and a basket full of yellow wax beans and green beans. Oh yea, and one egg from the coop.

Home brewing has become one of my favorite hobbies lately. Merging this hobby with my love for gardening has made me very excited to be growing hops. This past week, our hops began sprouting it’s cones.

I wasn’t quite sure what these would look like as they began to grow. Pretty cool looking. I believe this is the Mt. Hood variety. Can’t wait to harvest these so I can make home brew with my very own hops.

This little guy welcomes you to the garden.

The Jerusalem Artichokes are growing tall. I can’t wait till they bloom.

The Nasturtiums are starting to bloom.

The edible leaves make a great addition to salads and sandwiches.

The brussel sprouts were nearly eaten away to nothing by the two rabbits that hang out shamelessly in the garden. Luke fenced them in and they are finally coming back.

The pole beans are still climbing away, while the bush beans that were planted at the same time have already flowered and are producing.

Bush beans:

The herb spiral is the most useful spot in the garden. I use herbs in pretty much every meal.

All of the asparagus crowns we planted this spring are growing.

I haven’t counted, but we already have a ton of pumpkins growing. Some of the pumpkins came up in their own from the compost.

Another pumpkin growing on a piece of slate.

Broccoli was another favorite of the rabbits until we fenced it off with bird netting. We haven’t harvested any broccoli yet, but it seems to be growing well now.

The three sisters bed. The pink corn silk is so festive.

A neighbor gave us clippings from his grape vines to root. They are starting to grow leaves and will be transplanted to our new mini vineyard next year.

The eggplant had such a slow start but finally seem to be growing.

The cucumber trellis is working out great! The vines are safely up off the ground and the cucumbers are easy to harvest.

Little pickle:

Kale is prolific. It feeds us from spring till winter and is so good raw, cooked, and thrown in with just about any meal.

Like kale, the swiss chard is another green that feeds us from early spring to late fall. It is so glossy and pretty.

I’d like to stuff and fry this little guy.

Zucchini overload is upon us.

Egyptian onions are a favorite from my childhood. My mother’s garden was filled with them. She brought us some this spring.

Our first attempt at growing cabbage:

Spaghetti squash about ready to be harvested:

This is what we picked for dinner tonight:

cilantro, kale, cucumber, spaghetti squash, green beans, yellow beans, and zucchini

Luke was brave enough to climb to the very top loft of our barn, which is home to a colony of bats. He got this great shot of our entire mandala vegetable garden:

I went back and labeled everything we’ve got growing this year for reference:

I’d love to do this every month, or at least every season!

We have 14 different varieties of tomatoes growing this year, which is turning out to be a great year for tomatoes.
I never cease to be amazed by the vast differences in shape, color, size and taste among tomatoes. None of ours have ripened up yet, but here is a gallery of the interesting shapes of the fruit to come:

A beautiful Medford tomato that looks like Cinderella’s carriage:

Even the leaves of the Medford are unusual:

The greenhouse is working out really well for growing tomatoes. The Cherry Sweeties are taller than me already and just covered in fruit. Check out the greenhouse:

The plants are trained up string that is tied to the metal supports in the greenhouse:

Also planted in the greenhouse are jalapenos, habaneros, eggplant, and muskmelon.

Here is what the garden is looking like these days:

Kale and squash:

Heavily mulched cucumber plants:

Cabbage:

Luke checking the mounds of corn we just planted between the squash and gourds:

The corn are transplants. Most of the corn we started in the field was eaten by critters.

Fern like asparagus behind some squash:

Green tomatoes:

Slicer and plum tomatoes:

Pretty pole beans:

Herb spiral:

A new row of carrots:

The cucumber trellis doing its job:

Zucchini and yellow squash:

Staggered plantings of swiss chard:

Three sisters- corn, beans, and squash:

Eggplant:

Yellow and red onion:

This time of year almost everything is in bloom, the daylilies, hydrangea, black eyed susans, and many more. I have some visitors coming today to learn about making jam so I thought I’d spruce up my kitchen with a fragrant bouquet of fresh flowers. You can enjoy them too:

The vegetable garden is now about 90% planted out. We need to finish planting one more type of pumpkins and re seed some spinach, arugula, and carrots. Most of the beds are even weeded, but some need to be done.

We are eating rhubarb, herbs, swiss chard, lettuce, radish, and sugar snap peas.

Small peas and many more blossoms:

Crisp red and green lettuce:

Celery:

Tomato plants growing quickly:

These stakes are leftover scrap wood from our pergola project. They are very sturdy.

Strawberry:

First year asparagus:

Corn:

Grape vine clippings just starting to root:

See the growth at the eye?