Hello, friends. Last week, I harvested cucumbers, eggplant, beets, pawpaws, apples, lima beans, yellow squash and tomatoes. A cabbage, onions and garlic were dropped off for a friend, and she shared a bag of tomatoes, which were much appreciated. As I'm typing this, we've gotten just a few cherry tomatoes from our garden, a couple small ones, and a larger one that ripened because something chewed on it. But more are beginning to ripen every day. I made the first tomato sandwich of the year, with one of the gifted tomatoes. So good! Later in the week, I did harvest a few more tomatoes. I harvested just enough kale to make a salad, which hit the spot. The eggplant was retied to stakes, as they had grown.
The latest round of green beans are coming up nicely. Something has eaten all the new cucumbers off, so I've started another round in pots, along with two types of lettuce, chard, and cilantro (thanks, Daisy). More zinnia seeds were planted. Mulch was added to plants in the garden, and a flower bed was weeded. Pawpaw pulp was frozen in muffin tins, and popped out, to use in smoothies. Our cabbage was used in colcannon. The small apple "drops" were made into fried apples for J. Hummingbird food was made. The wintersown hollyhocks had finally grown enough, and the ground was finally damp, with more rain expected, so they're now in the ground. I'm pretty sure that was a record here, for wintersown plants.
Same as last year, the squirrels have eaten all the hazelnuts, long before they were ripe, betrayed by all the shell pieces on the ground beneath it. Grrrr. We were able to enjoy some social things over the weekend. One of the potter's sons, who recently finished his music degree, was playing classical guitar at our little, local wine bar, and we were able to attend that. My sister and her husband rented a house at a nearby lake, and invited us Sunday. I've always felt a boat ride makes all right with the world. It's one of the quintessential pleasures of summer, in my book. May you find pleasures of the season this week.