Harvesting Has Begun

Today is the day I can begin to brag about my garden.  I'm tickled that the bees have found my plants.  They are industrious little guys and a great help.  I can't count the number of flowers I have on the cucumber plant.  I have picked a total of twelve cucumbers from that one plant.  Today I'll need to go get some dill to make pickles.

Pictured is one of the little guys on a cucumber flower.  He soon left this flower for the next.  Oh so much to do, not enough time to do it.


The week I was away was the week all of the plants grew to 'Audra' size.  (Check out the movie Little Shop of Horrors)  The tomato plants are now taller than the six foot fence.  My open pollinated one has multiple flowers on it that look as if they may turn into tomatoes.  The other one looks as if most of the flowers will drop off.  No matter, I still feed it milk in hopes of rescuing the newer flowers.

A lovely sight to see.  This plant has quite a few flowers on it that look just like this one.




 

 

This morning's harvest.  I now have enough beans to save for Thanksgiving dinner.  I froze the earlier ones and will freeze these also.  At the moment they're in the sink in cold water starting the cleaning process.  Even though I don't use pesticides I am most comfortable washing them four times to remove all of the garden soil.  Then into a pot of boiling water for three minutes.  Straight into ice water, then dried and individually frozen.  I use the food saver gizmo to pack them in so they will be fresh when we celebrate Thanksgiving in November.

 

 

 

Basil going into the drying rack.  I had five racks of basil to dry when I got home.  I now have had to begin a new container of dried basil.  You've got to love good soil!

 

This is what I came home to after spending a week away.

 

 

The bean plants have been very good to me.  I will harvest most of them, but the plants are open pollinators so I will let a few beans grow to seed for next year's crop.

 

 

On top of all this our daughter has tons of tomatoes - all sorts of varieties.  And if that's not enough my girlfriend is sending me (get this) seeds from an heirloom variety of melon.  The seeds are from melons that were discovered by monks in the early 1500's.

 

So when my friends ask me how I'm doing.  I say very well, thank you.  I feel so blessed with the people and things in my life that I could shout from the rooftop.  God is very good to me, indeed.