Harvest time!

Here is our garden mid-July!

 

The potatoes on the far left row have all been harvested.

 

 

 

We got one in the shape of a heart!  It was so fun to dig for the potatoes, and they taste great!  Like, really great....I had no idea it would be that big of a difference from a store-bought potato.  I mean, it's just an old potato, right?  Wrong!  Fresh potatoes are soooooo much better!  I honestly don't know how many pounds of potatoes we gathered, but I have a big burlap sack full, and we've been eating tons of potatoes from a milk crate.

 

Corn harvest for the freezer!  Mmmm....I can already taste corn on the cob in December! We got probably 40 ears that first harvest.

And as you can see above, the squirrels have gotten the rest of it.  It has been a daily, mostly losing battle to keep the squirrels out of the corn.  Now I know why our neighbor planted 2 full rows for us.  Because you lose about 1/2 of it.

 

Okra is starting to grow!  I have no idea when to harvest okra....I guess when it gets to be okra-eating size.  That's technical, right?  And (above) to the left of the okra are our pole beans.  We pick a colander full every 2-3 days.  Enough to eat for dinner and have some leftover to freeze.

 

So, this vine below is a mystery volunteer that sprang up on it's own around the corn.  This picture is really not great because the vine is huge and goes on and on and on and has taken over the area.

Below is the "fruit" that is on the mystery vine.  We are thinking maybe it is a gourd?  What the heck can you do with a gourd???

Below is our 2nd brandywine tomato.  It is clearly the ugliest tomato in the world.  It has all those splits and the bottom is just as bad.  I brought it in to ripen in the window because I thought it might get eaten by bugs.  Will I still attempt to eat this, you ask?  Of course!  Just around the split parts ;)

 

All the green cherry tomatoes are *ahem* thanks to Ian.  Need I say more?  He has been very good about not picking things that aren't ripe in the garden, but these cherry tomatoes are on a plant in a container next to the house.  So clearly, the same rules do not apply. 

Ahhhh toddlers.....they are so literal!

The bottom of the ugliest tomato in the world.

 

Egg harvest!  Sunday through Thursday, our harvest has been 18 eggs!!!  You can see the bigger one below!  When they first start laying, the eggs are smaller and gradually get bigger. 

And they are delicious!

 

Below is our first watermelon and cantaloupe!

 

Cherokee Purple tomato...and oh, was this one sooooo good!

 

Another pic (for my dad). :)

And yes, just indulge me.  I've been having daily tomato sandwiches for lunch.

 

Made this recipe for okra and tomatoes the other night and it was really good.  I never knew until just a few days ago that you can take fresh okra and soak it in vinegar for 30 minutes and that will take the sliminess out of it!  I thought the recipe turned out to be a delicious new way to eat okra!  The only thing I did differently was to use fresh cherry tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes.

 

Green beans, carrots and okra!

 

The beans cooking southern style ;) with some bacon and cowpeas.  Slow-cooked them for hours and they were fantastic.

 

So we've really been enjoying our harvest.  There are still tomatoes, okra and green beans producing, as well as cantaloupe and watermelon.  Oh, and orange bell peppers!  We have about 6 pepper plants and they each have at least 10 peppers!  Considering I only spent $35 in seeds, I have more than earned back that money in the peppers alone!  Gardening is saving us soooooo much money!