another blog entry.  Wow, the season has been a challenge - as usual.  Early season I had to go out of town for a family issue so got the peas and spinach in late - they produced but not much!  I ate the peas out of the field but did manage to harvest a few quarts of spinach.  The Bordeaux spinach was particularly tasty this year - and stunning with the red stems and veins.

Warmth combined with enough rain made planting tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers a joy -and they all took off - BUT - and their is always a BUT - the droughty 3 weeks that followed ended up in bitsy eggplants that got nailed by flea beetles and tiny pepper plants that have managed to produce but not much and small fruits - sometimes you can never catch up with a bad start.

Corn was probelmatic again this year - mostly due to the same droughty conditions but I did get some ears for the dinner table!  Winter squash suffered too - mostly from a squash vine borer attack but there are a few spaghetti squash and pie pumpkins - small though they are.

On the bright side - a spectacular tomato harvest - it looks like late blight may be attacking again but we've put up so much sauce and eaten so many fresh tomatoes that I'm not caring that much if the season is cut a wee bit short.  Garlic, as always, was a great harvest and the best onions from this year's planting were the ones I started from seed.  So, cheaper and more productive - yeah -planting from seed from now on.

Potatoes are still coming up -there will be plenty for the winter though they are small again - see aforementined drought during prime growing time.

The star success story this year is the great crop of snap and dry beans - apparently lining the furrow with alfalfa meal is the perfect way to fertilize.  And apparently innoculant is not that important - given that I innoculated the garden beans with soybean innoculant and vice versa.  The soybeans did great too.  So, next year I am saving my money and planting without innnoculant.

Cucumbers did much better this year - but died suddenly after producing a big first flush - but I'm putting up plenty of pickles (misadventures of canning to follow).

Carrots and beets are still sizing up - I plant late now that I don't sell anymore so won't harvest until end of October.  Cabbages are also nice and I've harvested my first ever cauliflower and broccoli this year - so try try again is a good strategy.

Kale and collards went in a little over a week ago - and not really much rain to speak of so no germination yet - that may be another crop failure.

Oats, wheat, and clover for winter cover are going in with varying germination rates - again - lack of rain.

More to come!  And pictures too!