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| saturn peaches, blackberries, ume plums, garlic chives |
The peaches started ripping last week. This signals the start of summer even though the weather doesn't feel like it at all. The temperature has been a lot cooler than usual and gardening-perfect. We are trying to enjoy the weather before those 90-some or 100-some degree hot summer days come.
Back to my basket of goodies. These tree-ripened peaches are mouth-wateringly delicious. They have a light sweet scent and the skin peels right off. They are very juicy and not overly sweet. Just the right sweetness. Just peachy.
We also harvested a couple of our first blackberries. We should be getting loads of them in a few weeks. The two apricot-looking things are ume plums. They are used to make Japanese pickled plums (umeboshi) when the fruits are still green and sour. The ripe fruits are rather tasteless. The tree only bore about 5 fruits this year. Maybe we'll try making some umeboshi if there's ever a good amount of harvest.
The cooler-than-usual temperature also means happy greens. In this box there are - tung ho (edible/garland chrysanthemum), curled Indian mustard, a-choy lettuce, spinach, mizuna, summerfest komatsuna... oh ya, and our first cucumber!
Our garlics are pathetic this year. We didn't notice that our irrigation system wasn't working right for a little while. Their growth is stunted and the leaves are burnt. For now, they are hanging on. Earlier during the week, I harvested our garlic scapes. I was excited to see the garlics producing scapes since I had never grown hardnecks before. The scapes are a little tougher than I would like (probably because of the lack of water) but still good.
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| baby preying mantis |
When I was working in the garden, this little guy came along and wanted to play. I asked it to pose for a few pictures, then it left to get some aphids for dinner.
I saw this caterpillar on my pumpkin plant. Good bug or bad bug?
5 comments:
What a beautiful harvest you have there with greens and fruits! Regarding that caterpillar, I'm no bug expert, but I err on the side of caution and believe all caterpillars eat holes in your greens, some a lot worse than others! But I could be wrong, so I'll see what the other gardeners say about this. If this particular caterpillar just stayed on your pumpkin plant, maybe it's not so bad; but if you see them on your greens like any sort of brassica, I would get rid of it pronto!
I pretty much hate all caterpillars/worms (except earthworms), too. I didn't get rid of this one because I didn't see holes on the pumpkin leaves. Now I'm worried. I'll check on my pumpkin plants in the morning.
Very very nice harvest! Your scapes do look a bit tough. Mine are always very tender. I have no idea about the caterpillar...sorry
Ugh, I don't know enough about most bugs either to know the good from the bad.
Yum, fresh peaches - heaven!
Oh how I love peaches. I can't wait for peach season. Since my peaches were just planted this year I'll still be buying them from the farmer's market.
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