Holy Tomatoes Batman!

Yes thats right we have tomatoes. Lots and lots and lots of tomatoes. We were wondering if they were ever going to turn red with it being such a cool summer but most of them have now finally turned and we picked them Sunday afternoon. Carl also dug the rest of the potatoes and we have lots and lots of mini-pumpkins as well. Our beets are pretty much ready and we have an abundance of acorn squash that need to be picked. The garden is producing quite well at last! Tuesday Andrea and I made a 2nd batch of spaghetti sauce and a double batch of salsa and still had 3 boxes of tomatoes left. In harvesting all of our vegetables we have learned what we like and what we don't about our garden from this year. All of this will be implemented next spring when we plant again. I'm sure all the work will be much appreciated this winter when we good veggies and sauces to eat.

Garden View

Just a few shots from around the garden.

Sweet

Corn! This past week was full of picking, shucking, debugging and freezing sweet corn. Last Wednesday was also spent canning peaches and then Wednesday night Carl came out to the garden after work and he and Andrea picked all the sweet corn that was ready. Unfortunately the black picnic bugs thought our sweet corn was quite good as well and got into several ears. We did manage to salvage most of it and despite the heavy winds that all but knocked it flat earlier in the summer we did manage to get a pretty good crop. Thursday morning Andrea and I shucked all the corn between making sure 3 little boys weren't getting into things they shouldn't. Then after that long and tedious task we started cutting it off the cob and cooking large batches. At the time it seemed as if we had lots of corn but as we started freezing it in bags we discovered we really only had enough for about 13 bags of corn. We will know that we need to plant more for next year:) We planted several different varieties and we taste tested each one to see which we liked the best for next year as well. We planted Peaches and Cream-good and sweet but black bugs LOVED it. Serendipity-pretty similar to peaches and cream but easier to cut off cob and longer ears plus black bugs didn't seem to like it quite as much. Honey and Pearl-Wow super sweet maybe even a little too sweet? and Candy Corn-not as sweet and a later developer, black bugs also seemed to enjoy this variety greatly. We think we liked Serendipity the best for overall flavor, corn size and ease to freeze. After lots of cooking, cooling and bagging we were finally done around 7:00 that evening. We decided that shucking the corn is going to be a good job for the boys when they all get a little older:)

Progress

Here are some shots of the garden. Everything is looking good and getting big! Besides kohlrabi we have also been enjoying zucchini, green beans, cucumbers and a few grape tomatoes, more to come soon!

and the pigs are doing quite well also!

On Tuesday we picked a zucchini -- I knew we had some ready but had no idea this big one was out there! Time to make some bread!

Mmm-- fresh basil from the garden for our panini sandwiches. They were awesome!

In other news -- the corn is tasseling, the grape tomatoes are turning red, the peppers were fertilized and now look much better -- some even have peppers on now, the vines are taking over and there are baby pumpkins and melons starting to form, Hollie and I picked beans yesterday--more to pick this weekend (hopefully enough to can).

Getting Big

Everything in the garden is getting big, including the weeds so it received a good weeding yesterday. We got the beets thinned out as well. It is looking really good. The corn is as tall as Gabe, a little taller actually. We even have had a few peas ready but most of them will be ready soon.

The pumpkins are getting big and have flowers on them.
There are little tiny tomatoes and a few are even starting to turn orange and there are little beans on our bean plants, it is so exciting to watch everything grow so quickly. Now if we can keep our boys out of the garden and from stepping on plants we will be doing well:)

First Fruits(well vegetables)

The first veggies in the garden were picked last night. These lovely, delicious kohlrabi were the first things ready and sadly I am really the only one who is excited about it:) More for me I guess. Everything is looking good, we have little green tiny tomatoes on our tomato plants, the peas and potatoes have little blooms, the beans, onions, carrots, beets, corn, sunflowers, melons, and pumpkins are all growing well, now if the darn weeds would just stay away!