Fiacré's spade: Midsummer harvest

Terry and I have different approaches to weeding. I like to keep up with it. I love looking down a weed-free row when I’m done. Terry tends to put it off. In his defense, he also has to keep the weeds out of his nursery trees. Not being able to bear tossing out the onion seedlings that didn’t fit in the north garden, he planted two rows in the south garden. At present the purslane has gotten so bad that he can’t weed the onions without pulling them up with the purslane. It's okay. We won't be short.

My onions

Terry's onions

I know that purslane is edible because in c. 1970, when Euell Gibbons’ classic, Stalking the Wild Asparagus came out in paperback, I made purslane pickles. They were very, very salty. Having all this purslane on hand, I thought I’d give it another try. It’s supposed to be a super food. Gibbons described the purslane as “mucilaginous,” which, with synonyms of “snotty” and/or “slimy,” does not make it sound appealing. However, I loved okra and tomatoes when I was a kid, and okra is also mucilaginous. I thought I’d sauté my purslane with a tomato. Like so many greens, it cooked down to nothing. It tasted like tomatoes and did not seem to noticeably thicken the juice.

Purslane and tomatoes

“I like it better than kale,” I told Terry.

“That’s not saying much,” he replied.

The beans and peas in the garden are growing rapidly. I expect to be harvesting in a week or so, depending on the weather. It’s pretty hot today, and that will speed things along.

Left to right, peppers and cabbage, beans, peas, and onions

All of the beans I planted in the high tunnel were supposed to be a variety of stringless bush beans called Slenderette. Another variety clearly contaminated the package. For one thing, it is a pole bean that has reached the purlin ten feet off the ground.

One of these beans is not like the others

Also, the pods are flat rather than round and stringy. If I was more practical and had no sense of adventure, I would have pulled the plant, but I trellised it instead. I’ve given up harvesting it for green beans because of the strings, but the dry bean should be a white navy-type bean.

Slenderette, below; unknown interloper above

I had to pull out one of the trellised cucumbers in the high tunnel because it was collapsing under its own weight. Also we are awash with cucumbers at the moment. I harvested over 80 cucumbers from the pulled vine. I kept some of the little ones for sweet pickles and the medium for dill pickles.

So many cucumbers!

All the carrots in the high tunnel were ready for harvest. I’m not sure why carrots develop two roots. I suspect it is two carrots growing together, but have no way of proving it. They do take on interesting shapes.

Carrot in Repose

Two of the beds in the high tunnel have an interesting mushroom growing in them. I don’t know what it is, but it only lasts a few days.

Unknown mushroom, yesterday

Unknown mushroom, today. Tomorrow it will be gone.

I pulled the garlic, which is now hanging in the rain shelter to dry.

Drying the garlic

Most of the tomatoes are doing well. A new variety that I tried this year was Siletz Early. It is early, I’ll give it that. I’ve gotten three small tomatoes from it so far. There is not much else to recommend it. It looks pathetic.

Sad, sad Siletz Early

The cantaloupe is finally starting to grow. It seems late this year, but it was hot and dry when we planted. Terry thinks that none of the melons/pumpkins/squash like the heat much.

Cantaloupe

The corn is coming along. Note that on this ear the silks are drying up.

Silks on this ear of now-pollinated corn are drying up

I have noticed that some of the chicks shelter through the heat of the day in the landscape-cloth-covered dog kennel in the middle of the run. It must be a hundred degrees in there. You would think they would fry their itty brains! Most of them are in the coop sitting in front of the fan.

It's shady, sure, but it's got to be hot in there!

I took a walk looking for pollinators yesterday morning. There were a lot of them, but they moved too fast for a photo. There was a skipper on the bee balm.