From the garden this week

The garden is in full swing, and it's turning out to be a good year for tomatoes. I'm glad I planted some sturdy hybrid determinate types, because they're early and produce a lot of fruit all at once. With the exception of one tiny rain-split Berkeley Tie Dye (middle top on the first photo) all of the tomatoes I've gotten so far have been determinates. But! My eight heirloom plants are also loaded with fruit but taking forever to start ripening. Soon!

Here's what I've picked over the last four or five days:

We've also picked a LOT of green beans; this is just a small handful I got the other day. 

Still going strong.

There are about a dozen cucumbers in the fridge at the moment, but now the vines are almost worn out. It's turning out to be a disappointing year for cucumber production, but I'd rather have a bounty of tomatoes anyway. Last year there were a ton of cucumbers, but the tomatoes did diddly-squat. Now that's disappointing.

So, on to peppers! I haven't picked any yet, because I like to wait until they're mostly orange and red, but there are tons and tons of Jalapenos, Serranoes, Cowhorns, Cayennes, Poblanos, Tabascos, and Giant Marconi peppers...

 

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These pretty Tabasco peppers are our favorite, just for the beauty of the plant. It's hard to get a good photo of them because it's such a low, compact plant. 

And when someone named these peppers "Giant Marconi", they weren't lying! Look at the size of those monsters!

Cowhorns.

Thursday afternoon

It's a typical late-July day in South Carolina. Hot and humid, with hazy skies that are especially thick looking today because (believe it or not) smoke in the atmosphere from the wildfires 3000 miles away has reached us. Except for a quick early morning walk with George, watering the garden, and a late afternoon dash to the grocery store (in the un-air conditioned truck, ugh!) I've been hibernating in the house with the a/c most of the day.

While outside watering the garden this morning, I saw a beautiful and new-to-me butterfly. I believe it was a Red-Spotted Purple, and I wanted to get a picture of it to show you. Instead, here's an image I found online:

    

                                                Limenitis arthemis astyanax

I had plenty of opportunity to take a picture of my particular specimen, but I decided to spare you. He was perched on top of a giant pile of dog turds and was not moving.* Apparently this is a thing butterflies do sometimes. But anyway, you're welcome. 

In other garden news, today I harvested my 80th individual tomato! I've only had a gram scale to weigh them with (don't ask) so I haven't totaled up the number of ounces or pounds, but I believe I've had at least 40 pounds of tomatoes. As soon as the season ends I'll total everything up, but in the meantime it's 80 fruits, approximately 40 pounds and counting. Most of my plants are still growing and setting fruit. This is almost unheard of in this area. 

Another 1+ pound Mr. Stripey.  

Mr. Stripey, sliced. I love the colors. It's a mild, sweet tomato.

Mr. Stripey and a couple of others are taller than me, now.

And my bananas! Have I mentioned that my bananas are blowing up? They're also taller than me these days.

Last but not least, I had to share a picture of Marco for all his fans out there. Here he is posing beside one of the bananas. He had just flown a circle around the porch and landed there. If we didn't have screen to stop him, I assure you he'd be out in the wild right now. 

*Doesn't this seem like some sort of allegory for all of Life?

Summer breakfast

This morning I had the ultimate summer time breakfast: a fried egg, cheddar, and fresh tomato sandwich made on a sesame-seed bun, pan grilled in butter and slathered with a generous smear of Duke's mayonnaise. With a couple of juicy sweet plums for dessert. Heavenly.

It won't be long before breakfasts featuring fresh garden tomatoes and summer fruit are a distant memory. August is marching right along.

Farmer's Market goodies!

Last week while on vacation I made two separate trips to my local farmer's market. I shop there as much as possible in the summer, and it's one of my very favorite things to do.

 I'm a huge believer in eating local. It's better for the environment, since the closer to home food is produced the less fossil fuels are used to transport it. It's better for the local economy and small farmers, keeping the money in our community and out of the hands of big agribusiness. It's better for our health, since food that doesn't have to travel long distances can be picked when it's at it's peak of freshness and ripeness. And food that is in season and lovingly grown just tastes better! Our market is a wonderful resource for great food and for building relationships with the people who grow it.

Here's a little pictorial stroll through the Pee Dee farmer's market on a beautiful summer day!

 

 

 

Loads and loads of early tomatoes. Most are still coming from John's Island, SC this early in the year. 

 

 

 

 

Locally grown heritage pork sausages!

 Fresh eggs, cheeses, and other meats are available, too.

 

 

We still have rice plantations in South Carolina! How cool is that?

 

 

Pickles of all varieties abound....

 

 

 

...and this is the South. You have to have lots and lots of places to buy these:

  

 

Speckled butter beans, like the ones here,
 nearly killed me when I was growing up. My grandfather Lewis ("Pa") grew what seemed like acres of these, and expected the entire family to help him with planting, weeding, picking, shelling, blanching, and freezing the harvest. We always had enough to fill everyone's chest freezers with quarts and quarts of them to eat through the winter, but at the time everyone would have chosen to forgo some of the beans for less work in the summer! I'm not sure what was worse, picking them in the blazing heat of July (stooped over the low growing bushes) or shelling them afterwards. I well remember how sore and stained your fingernails and cuticles would be after a whole day of shelling, but the heat and insects and bending over involved in picking made that an equally distasteful job! My grandfather expected his children (my mom and aunt) and their children and spouses (my aunts, uncles, and cousins) as well as grandma to spend a couple of intense weeks in midsummer helping bring in his garden's bounty. No one minded things like corn, tomatoes, squash, onions, etc...but the butter beans and field peas....well, those were another story! Now, of course, I look back and admire his dedication to growing so much food for his family every year, as well as the fact that he continued doing so well into his old age. I never see butter beans without thinking of (and missing) my Pa.

 

 

 

 

 This high school girl had a sweet, outgoing personality to match her sunshiny smile! Lots of farmer's kids work summers at their family farm booth. Not only are they the most polite, mature, friendly kids you'll ever meet...there's not an iphone in sight. Amazing!

 

And oh, the flowers for sale!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've watched this young man grow up. He's the grandson of farmers that I've bought vegetables from for years. In fact, I remember the day he was born. His grandfather was working alone in the booth that morning, and when I asked about his wife, he told me she was visiting their baby grandson that had just been born. The little guy is growing up fast! He was almost too shy to let me take his picture. I had to talk him into it. (Just look at that bashful sideways grin!)

 

 

 

 

 

Hyman Vineyard's booth. They sell local muscadine wines, as well as jellies, preserves, sauces, and juices. The wine is my favorite though! 

 

                                                                                                                           

 

  

Seafood is brought in fresh from the coast, but only on weekends. Unfortunately I was shopping on a Monday!

 

The early peaches that are available now are juicy and divine. Tomorrow I'll post pictures and a recipe for the blackberry peach dumpling cobbler I made with fruit purchased on this market trip. It tasted just like summer!

 

 

As I was leaving the market (laden with goodies) I had to stop and take a picture of this beautiful afternoon sky.

 

And here is one final photo: most of my haul, piled on the kitchen counter when I got home: