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.

6/29 Garden Update

Here's the farm as of today. A little unruly, overgrown, and out of control but better that than not being growing at all.

The garbage can is in there for a size reference. In other words, the tallest peas are taller than me. To the far left are some peppers and then tomatoes in cages that are succumbing to the peas. To the right are a few rows of lettuce, some of which are bolting. I had tried to plant beans under the peas for a succession crop, but I think they were shaded out.

Lessons for next year: don't plant so many peas! Don't plant so much lettuce!

Apples

The apple tree is full of fruit! Small fruit, but clearly apples. Shortly after this picture I thinned out most of the little guys; I want the tree to concentrate on getting established this year as it's rather spindly.

Omelet for Breakfast

Local eggs. Spinach picked fresh from our garden. And of course cheese.