Here’s yesterday’s harvest. Skippy and I went out to our community plot with a big empty bag and came home with it full!

At the very far left is a little bit of spring broccoli that is still producing florets. Then come some tricolored radish that I just started pulling. They are very pretty and perfectly spherical. The cukes, a pickling variety and a slicing variety called Rocky, and are coming in fast now, though they are still small. I try to pick the summer squash small before it gets out of hand. This harvest has two patty pan (Starship and Sunburst). They are nice and sweet. I’m starting to pull lots of carrots now (I had a bunch more that I didn’t wash for this picture). This variety is Mokum, my early carrots. My two other varieties are still growing. There are two varieties of beets here: Lutz (dark purple) and Chiogga (pale reddish). I cooked them tonight with their greens and the Chiogga are especially tender and sweet. At the far right are onions that are starting to bulb nicely. And last of all, a nice bunch of basil.

Its actually been several months now since I’ve been in a grocery store. That’s one of my favorite parts of growing a vegetable garden. I buy meat at the local farmer’s market or fish monger, and our milkman (Crescent Ridge Dairy) delivers dairy products. We make an occasional trip to Cost Co and that’s all. We just eat lots of fresh summer vegetables.

I haven’t photographed my lettuce in a while, but I’ve been supplying our salad bowl since May 31 without any purchased lettuce. My challenge is to make it through the summer heat. Last year I couldn’t do this and had to buy it mid summer. Right now all of my spring sowings of lettuce have bolted and this week we’ll eat the last of it. I’m hoping my Summer Crisp Batavian lettuce will be ready to harvest next week. This is a heat resistant crop recommended by Gretta, my local CSA farmer.

Daucus carota beets (Beta vulgaris)