Indigo Rose Tomatoes are Ripe and... Whoa!  What happened to the beets!!???               

The Indigo Rose Tomatoes are ripe!  As you can see, they are definitely blue on the areas that are fully exposed to the sun.  The areas underneath the tomato... that would be shaded, develop the normal red color.  I realize they look very much like plums, but you can notice the tomato stem.

 I took them in and sliced them to have a look.  Red inside! So, how do they taste?  They taste like tomato!  They have a definite tomato flavor.  I ate them up.  And those blue pigments (anthocyanins)... great antioxidants... Wow!

Also, the Sweet Million cherry tomatoes are getting ripe.  We picked a few of them.  They did not make it back to the house!  So yummy!!!  Sweet Million is a very sweet cherry tomato. My favorite.

And what happened to the beets????  I walked out to the garden and looked around... where are the beets?  I think a deer ate them!  They ate some of the small emerging bean plants while they were at it!  

Wildlife eating gardens is always a possibility! That is enough for today. 

Glad we like squash....                   

The squash plants are doing quite well at the moment.  And three cucumbers were big enough to pick also.  

4 pounds of squash

3 cucumbers

More Squash, Broccoli, and Raspberries...                             

The raspberry crop is dwindling.  We are enjoying every morsel!  The squash crop is going strong and we even got some broccoli this morning!

Over the weekend, I replanted some green beans.  Something had dug up and eaten almost all the sprouting seeds!  Perhaps a chipmunk, squirrel, raccoon or skunk?  Not sure.  

We have not had rain for five days.  Possible thunderstorms were predicted for yesterday, but they never happened, so I watered early this morning.

3 pounds of squash
1 pound broccoli
3 cups of raspberries

Garden Overview                                 

Lots of squash to pick.  A few weeds to pull.  Here is a view of the garden from above.  Areas that are bare are where the lettuce, radishes and peas were.  They have been replanted with spinach, beans, beets and turnips.  The plants are just too small to see from this far up.

A quick survey of the pumpkins and cucumbers finds some developing fruit.

And jalapeno peppers are ready!

That is it for now!

Hot and Harvesting!                                

Just a short blog for today.  Yikes, the weather has been hot!  In the 90's.  That may not seem so hot, but the week started out on Monday with an 1" of rain.  Tuesday we had .9".  That means I don't have to run the sprinkler!  It also means that it is very humid!

The harvest continues.  Summer squash is coming pretty fast.  I think I may freeze some to use for cooking in the winter! The yellow squash is Horn of Plenty.  The round zucchini type is called Ronde deNice.  Both are very yummy!

Harvested: 7 pounds of squash

Tomato Cages, Trellises and Dry, Dry Weather                                      

Sunday, July 15th... 

Today I made tomato cages to support the tomato plants.  I bought a roll of 5' wide, concrete reinforcing wire at the local Home Depot for this purpose.  Concrete reinforcing wire is like heavy gauge wire rolled fencing.  Each grid in the wire is 6" square... which is important when using this for tomatoes... you have to be able to reach in to pick the tomatoes.   Using a pair of bolt cutters, I cut a 7 foot length of the concrete reinforcing wire.  

Then I overlapped the edges to make a cylinder and fastened it together with plastic zip ties.  

Each cage is approximately 24" in diameter.  

Then, I cut the very bottom ring off, leaving 6" wires all around the bottom to poke into the soil.  

Then I lifted the cylindrical cages up and carefully lowered them in place so that each tomato and tomatillo plant was contained in its own cage.  Then I pressed the cages firmly into place....  the six inch wires, sinking all the way into the soil  

Here's what they look like finished, and in the garden!  

The cucumbers and Zucchetta rampicante squash were rambling rampantly all over the place!  I bought a galvanized fence panel from the local Agway farm supply store and placed it in a nearly vertical position along the length of the row.  I supported it with three 2"x2" stakes which I pounded into the ground.  

So far, it is working well as a trellis.

This last week the weather has been hot and dry.  The lawn is starting to turn yellow and crispy and the garden looks wilted.  So, I got the sprinkler out and began to water. I fastened the sprinkler to the top of the trellis and was able to get about half the garden watered.  Then moved the sprinkler to the other side to water the rest!
  


 The peas that I planted in March and April were pretty much gone by.  The vines were looking kind of raggedy.  I picked the rest of the peas and pulled out the pea vines.   The lettuce is starting to bolt so I cut it all down.  I removed the tender leaves, washed them and drained them and then put them into a paper towel lined plastic bag and into the refrigerator.  They will make great salads for a while!

Friday through Sunday harvested
13 cups of raspberries
5 pounds of snap peas
3 pounds of lettuce
4 pounds of summer squash

Fourteen cups of Raspberries!......         

I picked fourteen cups of raspberries today!  I am making jam!

Raspberry Jam ( from The Ball Blue Book) makes 8 half-pints


1 quart of crushed fresh raspberries 
6 1/2 cups of sugar 
1 pouch of liquid pectin.  


Combine the crushed berries with the sugar in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil and stir until all the sugar is dissolved.  Add the liquid pectin and boil... a rolling boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute.  Remove from heat, skim off and discard any foam, and ladle jam into prepared jars.  Wipe off top edge of jars and seal with prepared lids and rings and place in water bath.  Bring water bath to a rolling boil, cover with lid and process for 10 minutes.  Remove from boiling water bath and set on a towel or cutting board away from drafts.  After 24 hours check to see if the jars have sealed.


And there you have it!

Sunday July 1, 2012... Planted beets, turnips, spinach and green beans.

A few days ago I noticed that quite a few of the bareroot strawberry plants that I had planted did not make it.  I am not sure what happened.  But I guess that is a lesson learned.  Order more strawberry plants than you think you will have room for (Which is what I did).  So now I have 12 plants which will multiply and create quite a few more!

With the demise of the strawberry plants, I suddenly had space in the garden.  So I planted beets, turnips, spinach and green beans.  

I worked up the soil with a hand held cultivator and mixed in a little of the 10-10-10 fertilizer... followed the directions on the container.  Then I planted the beets, turnips and spinach  1/2" deep, 1" apart, in rows 12" apart.  I soaked the bean seed overnight and then dusted the seeds with legume inoculant (see earlier post on inoculant).  Then I planted the bean seeds 1" deep, 2" apart, in rows 24" apart.  

I labeled each row with one of my homemade labels... made by recycling a plastic milk jug. 

2 rows of beets, 2 rows of beans, and one row each of spinach and turnips.  

With the arrival of hot weather, the challenge will be to keep the soil moist so that the seeds sprout.  If it does not rain, I will be watering daily.

We picked 1 pound of snap peas, two head of lettuce and two cups of raspberries.