Breakfast is ready!! This morning we have All Blue or (purple) Potatoes sauteed with garlic and olive oil, sprinkled with garden fresh green beans. I love the colors, and tastes, of nature.

Brandywine & German Orange Strawberry

There are no words……

Two of our subscribers referred to the squash as squish last week. I’ve never heard that term used before, and I think it’s kinda cute.

Either way you say it, or whatever you call it, we grow lots! Sunday, we picked a total of 80 pounds of squash. Right now we have: Ball, Sunburst, Crookneck, Zepher and Costata Romanesco. All good, all prolific, all squish.

These are our Striped Armenian Cucumbers. They were a surprise to me, and I ordered the seed. I wasn’t expecting this type of Armenian Cucumber. I was looking for the ones we’ve grown in years past that are light green in color and more melon-like. (I did plant a few of those and we found a couple last week.)

“Striped Armenian (Painted Serpent) Unique appearance and excellent flavor. Unusual, slightly fuzzy, “S”-shaped fruits are slightly ridged with alternating dark and light green stripes. Harvest from 8-18″. Delicious and different.” From Johnny’s Seeds.

…and your lungs. I can’t help but wonder what breathing this smoke is doing to our health. I suppose there will be news stories about this later, once the smoke has gone and we’ve forgotten.

I’ve noticed a mild sore throat for myself and a lethargic demeanor to my dog, Sadie. I’m not sure if that’s because of the smoke, the heat or due to her age…she’s 13. Either way, I don’t let her out much and I think the lack of running around is making her a little stir crazy in the evenings.

And I also wonder how this affects the plants. It has to, somehow. I think they are growing slower, just an observation, or is it my impatient nature when it comes to veggies?

And last but not least, I am grateful to the firefighters who are out there battling the fires and I am sorry those closest to the fires had to experience them.

From Wikipedia: In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. One of the most enduring myths about Independence Day is that Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The myth had become so firmly established that, decades after the event and nearing the end of their lives, even the elderly Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had come to believe that they and the other delegates had signed the Declaration on the fourth. Most delegates actually signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776.

(These flowers remind me of fireworks. This is the first time the aloe vera plants have bloomed in the 7+ years we’ve had them. I’m glad I took a picture, because the deer came through and ate all the blossoms.)

Roasted baby carrots, beets, red onion and purple potatoes, with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Yum!!!

(This pic is prior to cooking.)

Wednesday, we were able to give long, striped Armenian cucumbers to our subscribers. Soon, we’ll have loads of lemon cucumbers too. The bees are buzzing on the flowers, doing their pollinating job, helping in the garden.

I love the tendrils the plants put out. They grab onto anything they can. We are training all of the cucumbers to climb a fence. It’s working good with the Armenian’s, but not so good with the lemon’s. Either way, we will have a lot for our subscribers.

Why do we train them to climb a fence? Because it’s easier for us to pick.

All of our peppers in the bog garden were mowed down by what we first thought were rabbits, but on closer inspection, it was deer. We immediately raced to the nursery and bought new. But where to put them? We couldn’t chance planting them in the same spot, they would probably be eaten again.

So we decided to plant them in the new bed in the rain forest garden.

Back to the bog garden. We also quickly fenced, into the wee hours of darkness, the growing part of the garden. Eric is putting on the finishing, although temporary, touches to the gate portion. So far, so good.