Now that the brassicas have mostly all bitten the dust, this is the time of year when the nightshades step to the front.
We’re harvesting beautiful Yukon Gold potatoes.
The Italian variety isn’t ready yet, but we’re enjoying delicious Japanese eggplant.
Still waiting on the bell peppers, but we’re picking our yellow banana peppers.
I am SO ready for the first of (hopefully) hundreds of tomato sandwiches. Looks like we have about another week to go.
Romas
Johnny’s hoop house variety
German Johnson
It’s a great time of year for seasonal eating. Last night we enjoyed a delicious Tuscan soup, made with freshly picked shiitake mushrooms and right-from-the-garden squash and eggplant.
On an entirely different subject, I invite you all to visit my new blog Small Enough for a Story, which will focus on local history (broadly defined). It is a work in progress.
It looks like you’re going to have an incredibly tomato-y year as well. And there’s nothing like freshly dug potatoes. Yum.
We’ve never had large tomatoes ripen this early, we’ll probably have enough to start canning salsa by Friday. And it looks like you’re using the Florida weave to support your tomatoes, so labor intensive and so much stooping. We started using cages for the first time this year and I didn’t realize how wonderful it is.
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We grow too many tomatoes to use cages. We’ve found a way to do the Florida weave without all the bending. We run the twine through a 3 foot piece of 1/2 inch PVC and weave with it until the weave is waist high. No more bending over!
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Oh, those potatoes! Seems way, way early for this Mainer 😉 I’m following your new blog and look forward to reading about your area.
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Thanks Laurie. Our potatoes are a little early this year, but not by much. We plant them in March. Hoping to have them all out of the ground next week!
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Yum, yum! Nothing like new potatoes.
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Bill, my plants are a bit behind last years crop. I was eating my first tomato sandwich by this time last year but won’t have that privilege for quite some time this year. The cold rainy Spring put every thing behind almost a month this year. I’m about to plant the zucchini, and Swiss Chard, and pumpkins. Hopefully by planting so late in the season I can circumvent the vine borer plague. They seem to get my vine plants every year. It’s really tough to stay chemically free and raise any kind of vine plant here in Nebraska.
The potatoes are really looking wonderful and are in bloom so it won’t be long now until the new potatoes can be eaten. Yum.
Have a great nightshade day.
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The squash bugs and vine borers kill our plants every year. They’re killing them off now in fact. But we get lots of squash and zukes before they do. I don’t think there is any way to defeat them without pesticides. So we just try to get as much as possible before they overwhelm us.
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Of course, your gardens are well ahead of mine. I cannot pretend. I am jealous.
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As I am jealous of those south of us, enjoying tomatoes already. 🙂
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No “like” or “comment” buttons on the new blog?
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fixed. thanks. Now if I could just get that annoying black box surrounding the blog title to go away…
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It’s the new age of the Renaissance man, you still have to know how to do everything, but you add a keyboard to the equation. Lawyer, farmer, writer, media specialist.
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Ha! If you’d seen me befuddled and trying to figure it all out this morning you would not think that. 🙂
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Peggy came in yesterday, proudly carrying a Yukon Potato. It was small compared to yours, Bill, but it will still be eaten with relish. –Curt
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There’s nothing like potatoes right out of the ground.
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They’re beautiful to look at and I miss them greatly. Alas I am intolerant to all the members of the edible nightshade family (with potatoes giving me the worst symptoms.) My husband is currently growing blue potatoes which he loves – and will be able to have them all to himself!
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I’ve never grown blue potatoes, but have heard they’re great. Sorry about your intolerance. I hope you’re able to make up for it with lots of other great summer veggies.
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Dear Bill, thanks for sharing your new blog with us. I’ll go there now. As to nightshades–I’m a fan of potatoes–baked with olive oil drizzled on them. Yum! Your garden is surely productive this year. Peace be to you.
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Thanks Dee. It’s a great time of year for potatoes. I spent most of the morning digging ours. 🙂
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Dearest Bill,
All of your Nightshade family members do look very healthy!
Great season as it looks like.
Hugs and Happy 4th of July!
Mariette
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Thanks Mariette and same to you. I’m getting excited thinking about my those first tomatoes. 🙂
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Your vegetables are well ahead of ours, but we did plant late because of our trip to South Africa in February. Looking good Diane
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Some of our veggies are on time, some are late due to weather. It’s different every year. Hoping your garden is good to you.
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Going to check it out now!
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Love the blog. I’m much further North. It’s the first year I’ve gotten allI need (and more) from the garden by seed–and most survived the hardening process. We have the first of our nightshade blossoms this week, though anyone with a greenhouse is earlier. The first fo the “new potatoes” are ready in the fields, which is what Prince Edward Island is famous for.
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Love those first new potatoes of the year. I’ve just spent all afternoon digging the last of our potatoes, in 90 degree heat. Glad to have it done.
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