Sighted in the backyard

Possibly the World's Biggest Blackberry

Bean Update

Sorry, I couldn't fit the baby into this picture of Shield beans, as it's about 3 feet up the plant.  It appears that my beans have an ailment.  Some fungus or parasite or virus is turning the leaves a lacy yellow.  It's kind of pretty, but I don't think its healthy....  Fortunately it's got good size pods on it, so I'm hopeful that some sort of crop will work out.  

And planning for the fall, I've planted a row of red carrots next to the Calypso beans.  They seem to take so long to germinate that we'll probably have the beans harvested and out before the carrots turn up.

Beans

Here's a picture of our Black Calypso Bean crop so far. These heirlooms appear to have a bush form to them, staying low to the ground but still producing a good quantity of pods.

(5-day old Juliet added for size perspective)

Morning Harvest

Today Maddy and I headed to Columbia Farms on Sauvie Island to stock up on berries. Strawberry season is winding down, but fortunately blueberries are ripe!

Maddy worked hard, and sure was exhausted on the drive home. Poor thing, she's in a fresh fruit coma.

The last step was to wash and vacuum pack our fruit for the winter. 3 pints each of: blueberry, strawberry, Cascade raspberry, and blackberry.

Tomatoes

Looking down from the top of the tomato cage. In the background is the overgrown fire hydrant. And on the left...First tomato!

Beans

This is where the peas used to be. I'd planted beans to succeed the pea crop and the beans came up pretty quickly. Quicker than I expected frankly, so I needed to get the pea vines out of the way. This wasn't a major tragedy since the pea productivity was trailing off and I was getting sick of eating peas. (Is it Ok to say that? In past years peas never produced for me so I should be grateful for the heavy yield this year. Pounds after pounds. Green. Yellow. Snow. Snap. Sugar Pod. They never stopped. When can I eat something different?)

So I'm happy to see these pole beans doing what they're supposed to. Out of sight to the west there are some bush beans that have flowered and are started to set pods. Having had too many beans in years past this year we planted mostly shelling beans so we can dry what we don't eat. I'm hoping that the bean production can exceed what the peas did!

Strawberries

Little M tries out life as a field laborer. Out to the strawberry fields Maddy and get us some of those delicious Hood berries!

Shucks!

Favorite Food of the Week is corn, and she's happy to help out with the shucking.

Blue

Not so much blue yet, but plump. After taking this picture I put netting over the bushes to protect from the inevitable onslaught of birds.