Eat a bean!

This was one of two big harvests from last week. The Kentucky Wonder is aptly named. It has been the big winner this season. 

I've also been harvesting about a cucumber a week and a tomato a week (in addition to bottleneck and cherries here and there). I also pull 3-4 carrots and chop it all up (minus the cucumber) and sauté it for some dinner veg. It's great with a little home grown garlic and basil. 

The hot peppers are coming in now too. They love the hot weather. 

The kale is still producing too and a friend offered some mint last week that went into a very refreshing iced tea.  

The communal peach tree is ready for picking. I've brought home about a dozen little peaches for smoothies and salads. It's a nice change from all the vegetables. 

One big disappointment earlier this week was finding one of the two big Brandywine Purple tomatoes off the vine and on the ground in my plot. I'm not sure how it happened. Luckily it had just started to blush and was unmarred so I brought it home to ripen on the counter. I'll know next week how it tastes. 

The largest change in the garden this week was the removal of most of the bean plants. We're getting tired of all the beans and they're shading out the Celebrity tomato plant in the center of the plot. So here's a before and after photo so you can see the big cull in the back. 

It's a little hard to distinguish between all the greenery. The back left is now opened up. 

August Bounty

It's bean season in the garden. We've been sautéing, salading, and snacking on beans, beans, beans. It turns out Kentucky Wonder really is wonderful. It's a sweet, snappy, and highly productive pole bean. I'll be planting them next year, but far fewer plants than I did this season. 

Muncher Cucumbers have also been on the menu. I get about one a week off the three plants (that are somewhat crowded by those beans) and they're crisp with tiny seeds and thin skin. Another winner that will go in the garden next year too. 

Many nights we've sautéed up the beans with sliced carrots, a few of the bottleneck tomatoes, and a chiffonade of fresh kale and basil. Yum yum. Gotta love the summer bounty fresh from the garden. 

The jungle in back are beans. Those healthy silver green spikes in front? Lots of happy leeks. In the middle are carrots and crowded tomatoes.