Summer Harvesting

Quick roundup of what we've been up to out there:

Garlic--we've got tons of it.

Once it comes out of the ground it needs to be brushed free of dirt.

Then it needs to cure for a few weeks. We've been hanging it in the kitchen. It smells great and seems to be keeping vampires at bay.

The onions are also coming out of the ground. We didn't have the best luck this season because of the wacky winter. The combination of lots of water and periods of warmth then cold caused the onions to flower early instead of forming bulbs. We still got quite a few though:

The strawberry plants are loving the hot weather and producing heavily. We're in the process of saving enough to make some jam. We're getting close--Lauren probably picked three pounds of berries today.

The potatoes are ready as well. I pulled out 40-50 pounds today of three different varieties:

All told it was a big harvest today. We got some beets as well.

We also planted winter squashes, watermelons, eggplant, peppers and basil. Oh, and a whole packet of sunflower seeds. The ones we plated earlier are getting pretty tall and some are starting to flower. If all goes according to plan we'll have a forest of sunflowers in the fall.

So that's what's been happening lately. Hope you're enjoying your summer.

--Ian