Let the harvest begin!!

I've been really bad this year about notating what's happening in the garden, with the weather, etc.  I've been busy with market, Chipmunk, and weeds.   More on the weeds later.  (No, not the kind you smoke. *rolls eyes* I am SO not that frickin' mellow!!)

The weather has been hot and dry.  Ridiculously hot for Ohio.  Normally, I like the heat.  But the lack of rain has made things happen pretty slowly in the garden.  This would have been a great year to have that drip irrigation done...the same drip irrigation we've planned for a couple of years now.  But, as with most projects, when there's time, there's no money; when there's money, there's no time.

The cherry tomatoes are coming on now.  I've taken a few pints to market. The first few were mixed with mini white cukes, since there weren't enough of either to make a decent pint alone.  We've had a little rain, so things are picking up.

The currant tomatoes are Da Bomb!!  The Sweet Pea currants have to be my fave.  One teeny tomato that explodes with flavor!!  It's kinda like that Willy Wonka gum:  you think you've just had a whole bowl of tomato soup.  They are hard to pick and have a tendency to split, though.  I can't wait to try some dried.

Ground cherries are doing well.  I've got some in the dehydrator now, plus sold some at market.  They smell like cotton candy as they dry.

We harvested the Yukon Gold potatoes yesterday.  A much better harvest this year than last year, despite the lack of rain.  Eöl planted 25 lbs and we harvested a minimum of 150 lbs.  Just guessing on the weight, since we were hurrying to get done before dark and didn't bother to weigh them.  It's likely we got more than 150, but certainly no less.

The red potatoes will be done soon.  They were planted late.  We've dug up a few, just to try them.  This is the first time we've grown them and ohmygosh are they super tasty!!  Eöl is experimenting with a couple of growing methods, so updates on that later, as well.

I didn't even plant green beans this year.  I still had quite a few in the freezer. Most of those should still be good, since the stuff in the bottom of the freezers stayed frozen.  If not, no big loss. We're kind of tired of green beans.  Little Sis planted dried beans, instead, and those are doing well.

The corn, eh, not so great.  Lack of rain and the rampaging geese have taken a toll.  The geese are no longer a problem, so the corn has been replanted.

Tomatoes are slow to ripen, thanks to the heat and lack of rain. I'm hoping the recent rain will perk up the yield a bit.  I used some of the first ripe ones to make fresh salsa for lunch today.  **drools**

Peppers are ok, not great, also due to the lack of rain.  Already I have more than I know what to do with, since it's too early to make salsa to can (no tomatoes yet, remember?).  They aren't big enough for market; those vendors with irrigation in place have really nice, big peppers.  I think I may dry some, just to see how they fare.

I use these notes for reference for future planting.  It's a good thing, too, since my notebook got watered and is barely legible.  *sigh*  I need to type that up, print it out, and put it up, just in case I need to check something during one of the many power outages.

Speaking of outages...the lines that were down were spliced back together by the power company.   I won't be at all surprised when they come back down in the next storm.

And now, back to the garden.  It's time to get dirty! WOOT!!