Fruits of Labor

So far, this has been our best garden yet!  I'm sure it might have a lot to do with a great amount of rain/heat/thunderstorms that we've been getting.  This week, we are experiencing temperatures in the 90's and high humidity.  While I'm sure the plants love it, we've gone for more than a week without rain and they are begging for water!  We've completely used up our 50 gallon rain barrel, so I had to resort to using the hose today.  I think we're going to get another rain barrel...one just isn't enough!

Here is a look at how things have been going!

  

Each day, all of these plants get a little bigger and then comes the best part...consuming their produce!

 

We didn't plant any lettuce seeds this year, but one must have somehow survived from last year and we ended up with a great crop of Large Leaf Lettuce!  We enjoyed a tasty salad one night and then used it on grilled hamburgers another night.

 

Our strawberry plants are at the end of their two year cycle, so our berry picking ended up being few and far between.  What we did pick was delicious, though! 

 

Our Snap Pea plants did great!  We have at least 3 sandwich bags full in the refrigerator.  I plan to freeze some of them soon.

 

We ended up with probably two and a half bowls (of the blue one) full of peas for the season.  I LOVE peas right out of the garden.  They have an entirely different taste.  Even Clara, who won't eat cooked peas, couldn't get enough of them!

  

I took the opportunity to use them in one of my grandmother's favorite dishes...New Potatoes and Peas.  So delicious! 

 

Our raspberry plants are strong and thriving!

 

Every other day, we go out and see if there are any ripe ones ready to be picked.  We haven't had a lot ripen at one time, so we've eaten them right away instead of attempting to make something with them.

 

We pulled a good bunch of carrots out of the ground the other day!

 

 It's hard to perfectly thin carrots out in the early stages of their growth, and as a result, we ended up with this!  I thought it was interesting that they wrapped around each other!

 

This picture doesn't make it look like a lot of green beans, but trust me, there are quite a few (with more growing on the plants!).  I'll probably freeze these, and if I get another big bunch like this, I might try to can them to see which preservation method I like better.

 

We have a couple of "eating" pumpkins growing on the vines!

 

This is a teeny tiny start to a Sugar Baby watermelon.  I've found at least three of them so far!

 

Two of our four Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin plants.  All of them have pumpkins growing on them!  You can clearly see two of them in this picture...one in the upper left corner and the other one almost right in the middle of the picture.

 

The herbs are doing great!  On a windy day, their scents are intoxicating!  The oregano is spilling over on top of the rosemary and lemon balm, but I'll cut it back soon.  I can't wait until the chamomile and lavender start to bloom!

 

We have a ton of summer squash growing!  I plan to saute the majority of this with some onion and bacon tonight.  Can't wait!