Green Beans, Jalapenos & Onions...

This past week, we were able to pick our first green beans, jalapenos, onions and potatoes.  This post will talk about all but the potatoes, as I promised Kately she could do the post about the potatoes, since she is so curious about how the blog works!

Ryan and I spent about an hour picking green beans after church last Wednesday night.  I was really surprised how many there were to pick, but we ended up with 3 full gallon sized ziplock bags of green beans.

We took some green beans over to Grandma & Grandpa George's house on Thursday when we went to spend some of the day with them.  As grandma was preparing lunch, Grandpa, Kately, Brett & I sat down and snapped beans.  We sure had fun with them that day!

We pulled up our onions this morning...I was expecting they would be bigger than they were, but they'll have to do!  I think our ground is just too hard for them grow big.  I may try growing these a different way next year, but we shall see!



I have had many green jalapenos on one of my plants for a long time.  But, I remember reading somewhere the longer you leave them on the vine, the hotter they will get.  Well, this morning, when I came out to look over the garden, I noticed some had turned red.  So, we finally picked a few to see how ready they are.  Dad is the only one brave enough to try the red jalapeno, so I can't wait to watch him take a big ol' bite out of one!



Largest Harvest to Date...

It has been so HOT the past week or so, I've only been able to get out in the garden in the evenings right before dark.  Yes, I could get up at the crack of dawn and work in the morning, but with still having 2 young kids, I try to "sleep in" as long as they will!  I don't think I will ever be a morning person :)

Even with the lack of rain, our garden is still producing quite a bit.  It is a daily process to go out and pick everything that has ripened since the day before, to make sure there are no new "pests" eating on plants and to make sure everything is getting atleast a little water.  This evening, I picked our largest daily harvest to date and even got to add cherry tomatoes, okra and green peppers to the mix!

Final Thoughts For Today:
I have tried many zucchini/squash recipes in the past 2 weeks.  I have learned my husband and kids (Brett is still not too sure) have actually learned to like a new vegetable, but my family (including myself) is about sick of zucchini/squash for dinner!  I really need to learn how to make pickles because I am about to be buried in bush cucumbers.  I am so happy my kids have also been able to experience how good it feels to give our produce away.  They are always so excited to carry in a basket of goodies to give to people!  I treasure the days when my vision is so clear to the multitudes of God's blessings for me and my family.  It is such a humbling feeling because I fail him everyday even though I try my hardest not to.  Thank you God for your love and mercy today.

Cat-Faced Tomato

We've got green tomatoes of all shapes and sizes on the vines.  With this heat wave, I am having to be extra careful to make sure the tomatoes have a regular watering schedule.  I have learned quite a bit so far about tomatoes and here's my most recent finding...Here is a picture of the 2nd large tomato I have pulled out of the garden.  It is a Pierce's Pride tomato, but it looked so odd when I pulled it off the vine, I had to research it to see if it had a name.

Cat-facing is a physiological disorder of tomatoes. Cat-face originates in the early stages of flower bud development and is the result of abnormal development of plant tissue between the style and ovary which results in misshapen fruit. Other impediments to flower bud development can also result in cat-facing. The syndrome is related to unfavorable growing conditions, in particular several days below 60 F when the plants are young. Even though it doesn't look like a "normal" tomato, it shouldn't affect the taste.

A Little Tomato TLC...

Some of the vines on our tomato plants were getting really heavy and we've had some vines break off due to the weight.  A little bit of tender, loving care was in order to avoid more damage to the vines.  Thanks to some help with the kids from my mom, mother-in-law and Ryan today, I was able to spend about 4 1/2 hours in the garden. Most of this time was used tying back all the lose tomato vines.  It was a big project for sure!

Being this close to each tomato plant, I was able to take in just how many tomatoes we can expect...There are HUNDREDS of green tomatoes of all shapes and sizes! YUMMY...

Bean Wigwam...

When dad was a kid, he remembers his parents using long sassafras sticks to create a bean wigwam for their kentucky wonder pole beans to climb on.  We decided to have a little fun and build a few bean wigwams in our garden this year too!  Take a look...

Garden Glimpse...

I love the view out of my back windows...especially this year!  Those who know me well, know I love the color green.  It is such a beautiful and calming color to me and my eye is almost always attracted to green items.  Needless to say, each time I walk out to the garden, I am filled with joy to see all the green!  This entry is just going to give glimpses of some of the gorgeous sights we are blessed to look at each day.

Strawberry Plants:

Zucchini Plants:

Cucumber Plants:

Sweet Corn:

So far, we have been able to harvest cabbage, green zucchini, yellow crookneck squash and cucumbers.  The zucchini and cucumbers have been VERY bountiful and we've been able to share with our family, church family and some of Ryan's co-workers.  Each day, we fill atleast one basket full of goodies.  The following picture was taken while my little helpers were hauling one of our day's harvest back to the house.  It probably weighed 15 pounds!

Then, here was the following day's basket...Isn't it beautiful?







Houston...WE HAVE ZUCCHINI!

Today was the day...A few of the zucchini were ready to harvest!  I am so excited to add another veggie to our mix!  Pretty soon, we will have many zucchini because there are little ones ALL OVER the vines.   The seem to double in size overnight, too!  This definitely calls for a trip to Grandma George's house so I can learn how she makes her fried zucchini...MMM...My mouth is watering just thinking about it!  We also spotted about 6 small watermelon growing on the vines this afternoon!

More Picking...

I've been trying to delay picking all of the cabbage at the same time, even though I planted it all at the same time.  I don't want to wait too late to remove it from the garden, but I don't want to remove it before I am ready to use, freeze or give away.  So, last Friday, I decided to go ahead and pick some more cabbage and of course some more cucumbers. :-)  It seems every day I head out to the garden, I find more ripe cucumbers have magically appeared!  I love it--our garden is full of daily surprises! I am biased, but I think this is prettiest produce picture I've taken so far!

After the rain and heavy winds we received today, I went out to investigate any damage we may have received to the garden.  We had a few stalks of corn, some bean plants and one of my green pepper plants blown over, but we hope they will straighten back up in a few days since none were uprooted or broken.  I had a few vines break on my tomato plants, but all in all, minimal damage.  While I was tying up some of the larger tomato vines, I noticed our zucchini is getting close to being ready for harvest!  Then, I went to our usual cucumber vines...yep...18 more cucumbers were ready to pick!  So, guess what we added to our bedtime snack tonight?  I must say, before this garden project, I never thought I'd see Brett share a cucumber with Kately and I.  HOORAY for fruits and veggies in their little tummies!

Let's get picking!

Since my last post, things have really been growing due to the nice rain God sent almost a week ago.  Our burpless (climbing) cucumbers have been growing like crazy!  So far, we've picked about 10 but there are quite a few that will be ready in the next week or so...I was surprised by the shape of these cucumbers, as most of them curve in the shape of a "c".  So, Brett and I have been saying "C is for Cucumber" a lot this week!  Of course, Ryan suggested I should have taken a better picture or brightened this picture up so it actually looks like something appetizing rather than a "gift" left from a neighborhood dog, I had to post this picture because this was our very first cucumber and it was eaten about 5 minutes after this picture was taken.  So...yes this is a cucumber...it was brighter green in person...and it was DELICIOUS--LOL!

Although our tomato plants have green tomatoes of all shapes and sizes on them right now, we've only had about 10 cherry tomatoes ripe enough to pick so far. Some of our cabbage was ripe enough to pick this week, too!  I was also very surprised at the size of the cabbage heads. I had no idea they would grow that big, even though the actual plant they grew on was very large.  Call me a garden nerd, but we have had A LOT of excitement at our house this week due to the surprises we've been pulling out of the garden!

Although there is much work still to be done, this is the fun we've been waiting for since the beginning!