Chelle, your garlic bulb looks fine to me... I really can't imagine why it would have been so mild !

Interestingly (to me, anyway), I used the 2 garlic plants (that I dug the other day to check to see if there were underground problems) for some mashed potatoes tonight; I'm not exactly sure why I was surprised by this, other than the fact that the "bulbs" seemed so smooth and rounded, but they did indeed have individual cloves, and when I tasted a raw piece it was pretty darned pungent! (It was the "Music" that I had dug up.) Hopefully they will grow a bit more by the end of July and I'll have at least my usual harvest, although I'm hoping for larger bulbs this year because I selected out the largest cloves and also allowed more room between plants. Either way I know I'll have more than plenty for what I need!!

We cleaned 8 trays plus of garlic today for market. Some of the wrappers split because of the rain. Not as good as some years but some are larger than other years. Go figure.

Arlene, how do you clean your garlic? Do you wash it, just remove the outer layer of wrapper, or ?

Yesterday I posted pictures of my Summer Squash patch. Today I was out there looking at my plants (something I love to do!). I have never had so many different varieties. So I have small fruits set and I love the fact that there is so much diversity. They may not taste that all fire different from one another but they surely do look different from one another.

The first ripe tomatoes of this year. I will have these for supper tonight

GoatDriver said:The first ripe tomatoes of this year. I will have these for supper tonight

Oh yeah!

GoatDriver said:The first ripe tomatoes of this year. I will have these for supper tonight

Yay!


I just noticed today that we have SunSugar fruits with color. I'm tempted to bring them in before the chipmunks notice them!

The tomatoes look great. How do you keep the birds out of them?

I don't know how you get the first tomato into the house. My first ones never make it that far. I'm at least a month away from ripe tomatoes here.

drdawg said:The tomatoes look great. How do you keep the birds out of them?

The only birds that bother mine are my bantam chickens, they fly over the fence and peck a few at times but they pay me back with eggs.
I've never had trouble out of any wild birds messing with them. The wild birds are in my garden all the time catching bugs because I don't use pesticides, insecticides or chemicals so they have found that there are always plenty of bugs to eat there..maybe thats why they don't mes with the veggies.

tveguy3 said: I don't know how you get the first tomato into the house. My first ones never make it that far. I'm at least a month away from ripe tomatoes here.

One didn't make it into the house .....Do ya know how good that first fresh tomato is straight off the vine?

EDIT to add ...fresh tomato, fresh cucumber, fresh eggs with kale and leaf lettuce

Yum! You're making me hungry, and all I have set out for a before bed snack is a jar of pickled beets!

chelle said:Yum! You're making me hungry, and all I have set out for a before bed snack is a jar of pickled beets!

Well there sure ain't nothin wrong with a good jar of pickled beets

I only have 1 jar left in the pantry, it seems I eat more of them every year. I might have to make a dedicated beet garden.

So far I have onions and lettuce for a salad... serious ZONE ENVY here !!

That salad looks yummy! My lettuce is only about an inch high yet, but I've been enjoying spinach for a while, it's starting to go to seed, so that's about over.

Here's my first batch of each; regrown sugar snap peas, and Green Ice lettuce. Green Ice was quite overgrown and elongated by the time I got around to harvesting it, but it's still not bitter.





Both made crisp and lovely additions to open-faced turkey sandwiches with pumpernickel toast and a bit of cream cheese.



Yum!

Looks tasty, Chelle.

chelle said:Here's my first batch of each; regrown sugar snap peas, and Green Ice lettuce. Green Ice was quite overgrown and elongated by the time I got around to harvesting it, but it's still not bitter.





Both made crisp and lovely additions to open-faced turkey sandwiches with pumpernickel toast and a bit of cream cheese.



Yum!

Looks delicious, Chelle !

Sorry, missing in action here. Been so busy.

Sandy, we just peel the outer wrapper and cut off the stems. We don't hang our garlic to dry, just spread it out on screen/wire shelves.

Sold quite a bit of garlic at market yesterday. We had so many tomatoes we decided to go to Wed. Market, plus with the holiday being Saturday we're not sure how busy it will be. I forgot to take any pictures though! We had nine trays of tomatoes and came back with three. Many were still on the green side so they should be just right for Saturday market. We picked three more trays today. These are the produce crates, about 18"X24". The Tree's Bottom Yellows really sold well.

Deer are getting inside the garden and nibbling on my sweet potatoes and black beans. Matt said they are also eating his Seven Sons bush and today I noticed they ate the tops off my J. Artichokes. We spread some Milorganite around. Hopefully that will help.