I've now harvested about 200 strawberries from my first-year plants - mostly ever-bearing varieties, but also a few June-bearing. I've taken in two zucchini, 3 cucumbers and 20-30 various peppers. For the first time ever, I was able to harvest deliciously ripe tomatoes in the month of July. The variety is Stupice and the first two fruit were ripe 53 days from transplant (July 14), about a week earlier than the specified maturity date and several weeks earlier than I've ever harvested a tomato before. It's a good, golfball-sized fruit that is perfect as a side to some scrambled eggs and garlic toast. I have another dozen or so in various stages of ripening now and, of course, the plant is putting on many more dozens of green tomatoes. So far, it's a relatively short plant at about 4', probably due to this heat, but I expect it to take off come mid-August when we normally see daytime highs cool a bit.

Hopefully, in the next 2-3 days I'll be harvesting another half-dozen cucumbers, a couple handfuls of peppers and some more Stupice tomatoes. I should have an eggplant (Listada de Gandia) or two ready in the next 7-10 days. The big beefsteaks are looking amazing, particularly Stump of the World, Dr. Wyche's Yellow and 1884, all of which are handily 6'+ tall and possess several tomatoes easily at or over one pound. Of course, those won't be ready until the first or second week in August. I hate how they keep us waiting.. it's pure, unadulterated torture.

Still not a lot of harvesting here, but there has been some! Peas, zucchini and yellow summer squash, still getting lettuce (I have a frame with shade cloth covering mine, too, Zach - it is definitely extending the season! Of my 13 tomato plants, only the Celebrity has given us ripe tomatoes so far - only two of them but they sure were good! Except for one of them that seems to be succumbing to.....something....the other tomato plants are loaded with fruit and blossoms, so it won't be long until tomato feast days can begin! (I'm jealous of your beefsteak tomato successes, nbm1981 - the tomato that is failing for me is the Napa Giant and the only beefsteak type I grew this year.)

I know that this thread is for what is making it into the kitchen and our mouths, lol, but how about a mention of those things that MAY be there soon? :-p My cucumbers are blooming, but no cukes as yet. The beans, pole and bush, are also full of blooms - really enjoying the brightsome blooms on the Scarlet Emperor beans - but no beans as yet. My poor artichokes may or may not produce this year - one plant was viciously attacked by aphids but seems to be recovering; last year the season wasn't long enough and the artichoke didn't even bloom; hoping that since it came back this spring it may mature enough to produce this year.

Winter squash update - the Sweet Meat and Lakota plants are really taking off now and have buds but no blooms yet. Sadly, I couldn't get a single one of the Delicata seeds to even germinate - tried three times, both in ground and in pots, nada. Don't know what the deal was but I am going to blame it on the company that sold the seeds and not buy from them again, as I have never had zero germination before except for my failed homemade lettuce seed tape, lol.

Holly

I haven't provided an update for awhile. Busy!

The amaranth was strongly flavored. Part of that may have been the relative age of the little plants. Not an unpleasant flavor but it's difficult to recommend a green with such punch! Either an acquired taste or it may be a milder flavor started and maturing late. We will see. It's great to have summer veggies and a person can never have too many choices!

I don't believe that my bush beans have ever struggled so much through June to provide a crop in July! They are lovely, tender things and I've had a few servings with plenty more on their way for August and into September.

The zucchini plants, yellow and green, have each produced 1 or 2 zucchini. I expect the plants to do a fair amount more growing, however.

DW and I have each had 1 Talladega cucumber and 1 Muncher. Talladega is an American slicer and Muncher is a Mediterranean type. I sure like those Munchers!

The tomato plants are sure slow ... "unadulterated torture," nbm Erie? That about describes it. It's amazing to me that I can have so many tomato plants and so few ripe tomatoes. Dribs and drabs of Sungolds, 1 or 2 Bloody Butcher (I think, although I did not actually see where DW got a couple small red ones she used in salsa). I have had 1 Sweet 100 and 1 Sweet Chelsea. I like Sweet Chelsea ... it's flavor seems identical to Sweet 100, it's just that it's about 3x the size.

The exception in production is Kimberley. A semi-determinate tomato, it won't have much for the remainder of the season, that is after it has ripened all of its quickly maturing fruit.

The three types of kale are never ending ... a few carrots, here and there. A Big Plenty of onions with the sweets beginning to bulb up now. Lots of potatoes with me digging slowly through the bed. (I'll sow pea seed in my wake this week. First that then bok choy seed next week. :o)

Steve

Other than onions, I haven't picked anything in a couple weeks. I picked three beans today... they didn't make it to the kitchen though (fresh, raw green beans are one of my guilty pleasures).

Holly, do you normally harvest ripe tomatoes by this time in July? You mentioned you've already harvested Celebrity - is that normal or were they early for you this season? I've tried several "early" varieties over the past few years and I never seem to get them much before the 80-85 day beefsteaks start ripening. I've noticed that even with our 95+ degree heat this summer, most of my tomatoes seem to be setting fruit relatively well. Some of the varieties that probably prefer cooler climates aren't setting as well, but all still have at least 10-12 fruit on them. Some of the more heat tolerant plants have dozens.

I always think my cucumbers are behind, but looking at my photos and videos from the past few seasons reveals they're right on time. My squash and zucchini are definitely behind previous seasons, though. I am growing them in a different area of the garden this season and I'm not so sure they're getting enough sun. They were 5' tall and wide by this time last season and I was already in the 20s for harvest from 3 plants. This season I'm only at 2 with the same number of plants. Oh well, win some and lose some.

The peppers are all doing extremely well this season, particularly the bells and poblanos. I've already harvested a few of each, but I'm waiting for the poblanos to get a bit larger so I can make chiles rellenos. Such an awesome garden-to-table treat.

My neighbor is growing Delicata this season, too, as it's her favorite. They are doing extremely well for her from what she's told me. I've never had them before, but she tells me they're outstanding, so I am excited to try them. I gave her an entire packet of seeds because I accidentally ordered two. I had planned to grow them this season, but since she said she'd give me a few, I planted other varieties.

I've included a few photos below of the tomatoes I'll be harvesting soon - these were taken today (July 20, 2016). These are all indeterminate beefsteak varieties with the exception of the ones you can see ripening - those are the Stupice. I'll be harvesting a few more of them tomorrow. I have two rows of Earthboxes I affectionately call the "Hall of Tomatoes" which includes 4 Earthboxes per row and 2 tomato plants per Earthbox, for a total of 16 plants. I also have 10 5-gallon self-watering buckets that I am growing various determinate varieties in, but they are actually quite a bit behind the plants in the photos below, so I didn't post photos. I'll do so when it gets to be harvesting time. :)

"Hall of Tomatoes". Now, I'm not very tall, only 5'7", but almost all of these plants tower above my head. The green posts in the center of the photo are 8' tall and are holding up shade cloth I installed earlier in the spring to protect against hail. I've never had tomato plants like this before. 'Tis a good year for them:

1884:

Stump of the World:

This was supposed to be Shilling Giant, but it's not (SG is not potato leaf and is supposed to be a heart). Not sure what it is, but it's producing an abundance of medium-large fruit:

Stupice:

Dr. Wyche's Yellow:

Rebel Yell:

- Nick.

Steve, the Sweet Chelsea sounds like it's worth growing. After having two Sweet Million plants last season, I swore off grape and cherry varieties for at least a few years. Keeping up with those is damn near impossible and, truthfully, not that much fun by the time late September rolls around and they're still pumping them out. I'm usually worn out by then and just wish they'd quit! It sounds like the Chelsea is similar in size to the Stupice I'm growing - about golfball size on average..? .. maybe a little larger. That's about as small as I want my tomatoes for the next few years.. :)

Getting ready to start my fall garden, as well - amazing we're already getting to that point! Lettuces and bok choy for me, as well, but it's always tricky timing it just right. I'll probably throw some radishes out in the garden, too. They're always fun and a very tasty way to end the season.

- Nick.

I don't seem to have kept very good notes so I am not sure if this is early for the Celebrity or not, Nick. It does SEEM early to me, though. The Celebrity is definitely a proven producer for me so I have decided that this old-reliable will be in my garden each year - quite tasty, too - but I think the tomatoes that ripened (remember I have only harvested two of them so far, lol) had already been set when I put it in the ground in June - I know it had blooms on it, anyway!

Hall of Tomatoes indeed, Nick! I enjoyed looking at your photos. Sixteen indeterminates and an unknown number of determinates. You must freeze, can, otherwise preserve or give away a lot of tomatoes! And here I am wondering what I will do when all 13 of my plants decide to produce - you have me beat by a lot!

I usually have so much to do with the veggies I planted in the spring, along with the rest of my garden, that I don't actually plant any "fall" crops. I may have to rethink that - next year, lol.

Holly

Well no tomatoes are making it into the kitchen yet. My tomatoes are
still kind of behind after being stripped basically to stems after the
May 26 hail pounding. The Westminster garden will have tomatoes soon.
I'm sort of surprised they have done as good as they have. I didn't
start the lasagna garden bed until late March. Didn't remove any of the
grass and the native soil is pretty much horrible greenish gray clay. Of
course don't count your tomatoes until they are harvested but they look
good so far. One plant does look like it might be having problems. I made some compost tea and applied it the other day. Time will tell if it will help.

The peppers and eggplants have made a good comeback and some are almost ready to harvest. What's
coming into the kitchen now is zucchini, basil, bunching onions, a
variety of herbs and a few beans. Hopefully the beans start taking off.
Cucumbers should be coming in abundance soon both here in Aurora and the
Westminster garden.

Great, big ... beautiful plants, Nick!

Yes, Sweet Chelsea is about golf ball size, early in the season.

I wouldn't bother with any other red cherries and should find some larger golden, to replace the Sungolds and Sun Sugars. But, then there is DW. A few years ago, she had no interest in tomatoes larger than cherries, none. Not all that long ago, they had to be red. She is finally coming around to other sizes and colors but full(er) acceptance has come late.

Steve

who found a good handful of Yellow Jelly Bean tomatoes, today

Greg,

This is not only the first year for the lasagna bed but ..

. the first year for a Westminster garden. Am I right? How is it for you to have a garden in a distant location?

Steve

who has no idea of the distance between Westminster and Aurora

Well, Holly, every season is different! The health and success of the garden relies so heavily on our weather and, as we all know, that's never a given.. no matter what! Notes are fun to look through, but ultimately the produce we harvest will be ready when it's ready, regardless of what happened the season before. :)

I will be doing tons of canning if my tomatoes do even half as well as they did last season. I started last season with 21 plants and ended with 17, as 4 succumbed to disease. Those 17 plants, a mix of determinates and indeterminates, allowed me to can a couple dozen quarts of sauce (pizza and pasta), a couple dozen pints of crushed tomatoes (my favorite) and about 50 pints of salsa. I cored and froze most of them when they really started coming on strong in late August. I think my last tomatoes were harvested around October 7. Unfortunately, my freezers are packed with meat this season and I won't be able to get any tomatoes in there, so my plan is to water bath can whole peeled tomatoes and then make my sauces and such later on when everything is done. I don't really have any other choice, but you can bet not a single tomato will go to waste. I'll give a few away, but I LOVE my beefsteaks, especially the pinks.

Yeah, I never really focus on fall planting, either, but then I get sad when I pull my last tomatoes and don't have anything else to harvest when I really could. I have a few 4'x2' cloches that fit over several of my lettuce containers perfectly, so my hope is to extend their harvest into November, perhaps December, with the help of some old comforters. We'll have to see. My neighbor keeps her fall spinach going through Christmas when we have mild enough weather for it.

- Nick.

Thanks, Steve! Yes, the plants are very vigorous this season! I think it's because of the shade cloth I installed back in early June. The back of my house faces south and my container garden is right against the south side of my house, so needless to say, it broils back there.. even on 80º days. It's also quite exposed to thunderstorms coming from the SW. With hail in mind, and the forecast of a very hot and dry summer, I decided I would put up the 70/30 shade cloth. Without it, I absolutely would've lost everything from a 45-minute hailstorm we had in early June, and anything that did survive would be scorching in this July heat we've had. The cloth provides just the right amount of filtered sunlight to keep everything from crisping up, an issue I've had at times over the past few seasons during very hot periods (multiple days above 95º). I am having some issues with a few plants dropping their blossoms because of the heat, which is to be expected, but nothing is getting scorched - one of my main goals.

I love cherry tomatoes, but having grown them now for a few seasons, it's time for a break. They're great fun to watch and it's amazing the amount of fruit they produce, but this guy needs a break. I am excited to try my first yellow tomatoes this season - I've never had one before. I also have a white tomato and a bi-colored tomato. All new to me. Of course, I have lots of pinks and reds. The goal is to try 15-20 new varieties per season over the next 3-4 seasons, then grow what I like best on a regular basis, perhaps trying 3-5 new varieties per season thereafter. Eh, that's the plan. When do we ever stick to plans..?

So far, two Cherokee Purple and a few Sun Golds have been eaten. Picked an orange/pink Big Beef today because we are headed out of town. Notably, Early Girl has lots of fruit, but not living up to "early". If big beef tastes OK, it will replace Early Girl going forward.

Lots of Big Beef coming:

Your Big Beef looks amazing, Jerry! I agree regarding Early Girl not being early - they never ripen much before the others. I grew Big Beef last season and was wholly impressed by their size, ridiculously robust production and disease resistance. If I recall my tally sheet properly, I believe I harvested 91 tomatoes totaling around 35 pounds from one Big Beef plant (about 6 oz per fruit throughout the growing season - pretty darn good!). I remember being surprised that the first 40 or 50 were all over 8 oz. The unfortunate part was that I didn't love the flavor as much as many others I grew. Some were really good and some were really bland. It was a hit or miss for me. Other family members loved them, so it's possible they'll make it back into the garden next season. :)

Steve said ". the first year for a Westminster garden. Am I right? How is it for you to have a garden in a distant location?"

Actually this is year two for one bed and year one for the 2 new beds (one was started in Oct 2015 the other March 2016). All have been lasagna beds.

The Westminster garden is at my girlfriend's house so I spend enough time there to tend to it.

Here is a pic from about a week ago. I'm doing sort of a modified Florida weave. Started with cages and 7 foot conduit and then keep weaving rope around the poles, plants and cages. I'm calling it the Colorado weave.

Greg

Nick, Sometime you should which varieties have done well for you. We are so close that I should have similar results.

Jerry

Tomatoes are a sad state of affairs this year, but everything else that pretty much did nothing for a solid month is starting to pick up the pace. The butternuts never got past seedlings and still haven't done much beyond that but the pumpkins and gold nugget squash are doing very nice.

Oddly the corn has tasseled beautifully, but some are already dried up and NO silks on any of the stalks!

The peppers are hitting their stride now, lots of flowers and baby fruits on the the Jalapeños and one from Northern Mexico called "chile colorado." I had sworn off bell peppers because they are miserable producers, but I figured I would give them a shot in containers since the hot chiles do so well in them. Nope, never again, I will try one of the Italian fryer types for sweet peppers I think. Steve, you reccomended Carmen a while back I think?

I finally got my beans planted at the end of last month, and they look pretty good so far. Planted a lot of dry beans as well this year, flor de mayo, capirame, and Anasazi. I'm not sure they will have time to dry before frost, but we will see. Really i am growing them for seeds rather than to eat anyways.

All of your gardens look fantastic! I'm envious of your tomato forest Nick, its gorgeous!

Cucumbers, like peppers, are one of those things that just do better in pots than in the ground for me.

Corn, squash and beans... I wasn't planning it that way just the way it happened, lol.

And, other than a couple cherries, Nineveh is the only tomato even close to being ripe. I can live with that just fine, as long as the wait is worth it, but this year I don't think that it is.

Zach, I bet in another month you're going to be harvesting plenty.

This is what made it into the kitchen so far today.

The cucumbers are kind of young but seeing that there are so many coming in I'd give them a taste. The pepper is sort of early too but it was growing on the ground and I didn't want bugs getting to it.

The plants themselves are extremely runty this year, Greg. The cherry tomatoes, which I have been told are just about the most vigorous of all tomatoes are only 18" tall some of the determinate ones are even smaller than that even, and they should be at least twice that size. The determinate varieties alsk only set a few clusters of fruit at all and they are pretty much a "one and done" thing. They will put out a couple more flowers but that's it.

The indeterminate beefsteaks are okay size wise, but have suffered significant blossom drop on the few flowers they have had at all this year. Just not a tomato year for me I guess.

nbm1981(Erie, CO Zone 5b) said: The goal is to try 15-20 new varieties per season over the next 3-4 seasons ...

That simply boggles my mind! It's an admirable goal!

ZachS. z5 Jefferson County, Colorado said: I will try one of the Italian fryer types for sweet peppers I think. Steve, you reccomended Carmen a while back I think?

I did and I do like it ... However, my peppers are taking the entire month of July to recover from the month of June! Obviously, they are seriously stunted this year.

The tomato plants continue to grow but still have few blooms.

Steve

Nice harvest, Greg! Is that eggplant Rosa Bianca by chance? I grew it last season and found it not only gorgeous, but amazingly delicious and productive. I'm growing Listada de Gandia this season, which I expect to be about the same size and shape, but with deeper purple striations. I have a few small ones coming on now (about the size of baseballs so far) and hope to harvest them in the next week. They're stunning, but those thorns are something else - OUCH!

Zach, your cucumber pot is beautiful! I love the way the plant has grown the trellis and also cascaded down the side of the pot. It's really lovely. One of the things I love about growing cukes and melons is the way they trellis and vine. Staying ahead of the PM on the other hand, not so lovely.

I agree regarding bell peppers, but I've been growing 8-10 of them for the past few seasons and that definitely offsets how unproductive they are on an individual basis. I grow 6 plants to one Earthbox and I have more than enough for weekly stir fry meals starting right about now and lasting through September if the weather cooperates. I also freeze a few 1-gallon bags so we can have garden-grown stuffed peppers in mid-winter when I start dreaming about being in the garden again.. :) Just growing 1 or 2 bells isn't really worth the trouble, though the plants are beautiful. Jalapeños and serranos always seem to do well, but sometimes they're hot and sometimes they're not. Of 12 jalapeños plants last season, none of them produced a single spicy pepper, but the peppers from 3 plants this season are very hot. Not really sure what that's all about, but it is making me happy. An excellent smaller bell pepper that produced extremely well is Purple Beauty. I normally get 20-30 peppers per plant. If you want some wonderful grilling peppers, Carmen, Marconi, Thunderbolt and Jimmy Nardello are excellent choices and are generally very productive. I have seeds for all, as well as ~25 other varieties of peppers, if you're interested in a few.. just send a note.

I'm sorry you're not having good luck with tomatoes this season! That's a bummer! It's the squash and zucchini for me. And corn, too. Beautiful stalks, but the ears aren't forming properly. Fail. Oh well, there's always next season!

Jerry, I seem to do extremely well with beefsteaks and slicing varieties in general. The Big Beef last season was a really fun plant to grow even though the tomatoes weren't my favorite in general. The Stump of the World was unbelievable in 2015 and is currently my favorite tomato - 56 fruit from one plant - largest fruit was 24 oz and 13 fruit were over one pound. I understand it does well in various climatic conditions and is quite resistant to disease and pests. It's a FANTASTIC pink that rivals the best Brandywines, but is more productive and less susceptible to ickies. Early Girl, Costoluto Genovese, Rosso Sicilian, Violaceum Krypni Rozo, Big Beef and Stump of the World did very well for me last season. Early Girl has done well anytime I've grown it, but I think that's true of many hybrids based mostly on disease resistance.

My biggest struggle is with determinate paste varieties. For some reason they just don't do all that well for me. I had a Roma in 2014 that was amazingly productive, but I've struggled with various varieties of Roma-like paste tomatoes since then. I grew 4 different types of paste tomatoes (Roma, La Roma III, Ten Fingers of Naples and Paisano) last season and all of them died before they even got going. I have all but Ten Fingers in the garden again this season and they're doing well so far save for some sporadic BER here and there. They're not setting a ton of fruit yet, probably because it was 100 degrees again today, and are well behind the large indeterminate plants. Hopefully there will be time for fruit to set and ripen in August before we get our first frost.

Keep in mind that I've only been "seriously" gardening for 4 seasons, so I have lots of varieties to still try (I have seeds for almost 100). I've been around gardeners my entire life, and have grown a few things here and there for around 12 years, but I only found the PASSION a few years ago. It's now become a healthy obsession..

Thanks Nick. Yes they are Rosa Bianca. I have it marinating in olive oil, garlic and a variety of herbs. Should make a tasty side dish for dinner tonight.

Zach, what do you think are the possibilities that your plants are mostly stunted?

Yeah you win some you lose some. I have realized that in my garden at least there is typically one plant that defines the season. Some years are "bean years" where those do really well, some years are "zucchini years" and some are "tomato years."

Well, we won't have a tomato year this year, but if the way the plants look NOW is any indication, the tomatillos will make up for their slacking nature.

The peppers are starting to hit their stride, too, right about on schedule. I think next year I am going to focus far less on the hit-or-miss tomatoes and more on the much more reliable peppers.

I don't know, Greg. Everything else is doing fine and the spring veggies did pretty good too. It's only the tomatoes that are being difficult (and the bell peppers but I halfway expected that from them).

ZachS. z5 Jefferson County, Colorado said:

Yeah you win some you lose some. I have realized that in my garden at least there is typically one plant that defines the season. Some years are "bean years" where those do really well, some years are "zucchini years" and some are "tomato years."

I think you are right as usual, Zach.

DW and I were talking about this just today. Decades of gardening and we still have surprises.

Most are explained by weather but it is not just that "it was a cold spring" or "there was all that wind!" It is the stage of plant development also when these weather events occurred.

The good news is that the gardener can apply some ease for the plants through maintenance and nurturing. If observation breaks down, experience is a dear school. Often, it is at least a year before anything can be gained from experience. Many times, it is years ... then conditions repeat.

Dear me! Steve

Nice harvest this evening! I am getting ripe tomatoes MUCH earlier than in years past. My first were a couple of Stupice on July 14. Before this season, my earliest ripe tomato ever was on August 7.

Tonight's harvest included 11 Stupices, 5 mystery tomatoes (it was supposed to be a Stump of the World, but it's not), 1 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, 1 Shilling Giant and 1 Rebel Yell. I also harvested 2 Dar cucumbers and 1 Gele Tros cucumber. The Stupice is a delicious, very early red round tomato slightly larger than a golfball. It has a nice balance of sweet and tangy flavor and I like it very much. The mystery tomato is a pink beefsteak-looking tomato, but is much smaller, only about 2 ounces. They are very meaty with little gel. True tomato flavor with little lean toward sweet or acidic - nice balance of both - reminds me very much of an ultra mini Brandywine. I like it and it should be fun to see how it produces throughout the rest of the season.

I harvested 3 Purple Beauty bell peppers, 1 Red Knight bell pepper (still green) and 4 banana peppers yesterday. I chopped them up and used them all in a chicken and pork Asian stir fry - outstanding.

Should be getting some other tomato varieties within the next week - Stump of the World, Moskvich, Paisano and Early Girl all have tomatoes ripening.

The squash plants still don't appear to be doing too well and the melon and cucumber plants are meh. They all look good on the surface and are flowering profusely, but none have spectacular levels of fruit set yet.. there's still time, I suppose. I think this will be a great tomato year for me, and probably peppers too, but the rest looks mediocre at best..

2 mysteries and 6 Stupices:

3 mysteries, 5 Stupices, 1 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, 1 Rebel Yell, 1 Shilling Giant, 2 Dar cucumbers (green) and 1 Gele Tros (yellow)..

3 Purple Beauties, 1 Red Knight and 4 bananas:

Looks great! Been slooooooooow going around the garden here, just watching and waiting. My biggest excitement is that we have TWO pumpkins growing on the vines, and seeing my son be blown away by how cool it is he's going to get to carve a pumpkin he grew is probably the most amazing gardening experience there is.

But, the cucumbers have started to churn them out pretty good. The bees have, after years and years, started to show an interest in them so I'm getting much better pollination and overall shape on the fruits.

Thats "double yield" and "homemade pickles." Homemade has always done really well for me, but double yield is giving it a run for it's money I will say. I'm going to have to sacrifice one of the vines though to save seed from, I am running low.

And my sad tomatoes are still sad, though, a little less so. Picked these guys this week and they are now in the freezer, will hopefully get enough to make sauce with.

Zach, that's more tomatoes than I harvested because I have not harvested any. Tomatoes are still behind from that nasty hail.

That said the Westminster garden is on the edge of heavy production of tomatoes. Actually everything is doing outstanding there. I thought it might take a few years of working that heavy clay before it was productive. Of course if we get sustained rainfall with the poor drainage there could be a lot of root rot. I sure hope not.

That is significantly less that what I had last year at this time, which, if I had a bunch of green ones on the vine I wouldn't be concerned about but there isn't. I have a handful but not many. Oh well, what are you going to do? Although I was really looking forward to spaghetti sauce....

Like I said though, pretty much everything else looks fantastic! Except some of the dry beans have yet to even flower. Thats okay, they were partially an experiment to see which ones did well in my garden. I have learned which are not. Flor de Mayo, por ejemplo, no es bueno.

Tomatillos are too big, the branches can't support their own weight and they are like sails, even the slightest breeze about topples them over in their pots, the largest I have. Keeping them together is a feat of engineering. Got a couple more tomatoes.

But, the pride of my garden, peppers, are starting to come in strong. Lots of sunscald and BER on the bells, but even so I picked more of them in one day off of three plants than I have picked off of 12 tomato plants all year. Cucumbers are also killing it. got 7 from the "homemade pickles" just yesterday evening. I no longer actually make pickles so finding things to do with all of them is going to be a challenge here in the near future.

Tomatoes, green beans and a few peppers so far.

Here is the current inventory:

The large tomatoes on the counter are my first Black Krims - the three largest run 14-16 oz. In the basket, front tomatoes are Early Girls with Big Beef in the rear, a Lemon Boy and a few Sun Golds that actually made it in the kitchen. The pepper is Gypsy.

I have just gotten back to vegetable gardening in the last 3 years after a several-decade haitus. I have a couple of questions. I planted one cylinder-shaped 66" bean trellis with about 9-10 pole bean plants and have recently picked enough beans for about 3 dinners. There are a ton of small beans on the vine, but there are no blossoms low on the plant - only where the plants are trying to grow out the top of the trellis. Is this normal and should I have planted a second set of weeds next to the existing plants about a month ago? I had forgotten how great fresh beans taste.

Also, I planted peppers for the first time - one Gypsy, one Giant Marconi and two Shishitos. When should I be harvesting these? How do I know they are ready? I already picked and ate a bunch of green Shishitos. I picked the Gypsy in the picture because it started to show faint orange.

Beautiful photos, Zach! Your peppers and cucumbers look amazing. My bells are doing well, too, as are the poblanos which are usually finicky. Scaled isn't too much of an issue, except with the poblanos. The leaves are smaller and don't protect the fruit as well. Oh well, cut it off and it all eats the same. :)

You (and everyone else I know) are having a great cucumber year! I'm sure it has something to do with the heat and dry air. Mine seem to be struggling, oddly enough, for the first time in 4 seasons. The plants are healthy and vigorous, but they just don't want to set fruit. Too many male flowers and not enough females. There's still time for it to turn around.

Nice tomato harvest, Jerry! I grew Giant Marconi peppers a few years ago and love them! I will have them again next season. You can pick them whenever you want if you like green peppers, which I personally do very much, but if you leave them on, they'll eventually turn red and be sweet and amazingly delicious. Golden Marconi turns orange and I'm sure there are yellow varieties, as well. Shishito peppers are traditionally picked green, then sauteed in oil whole (including stem) until blistered, then dumped onto a plate and dusted with sea salt. It's an extremely popular snack in Japan, where the pepper originates, and is rather delicious. Leaving the stem on allows for easier finger food. :) I know only about 1 in 10 Shishito peppers is supposed to have some bite, but I found most of mine to be quite spicy last season.

I just have to post one of my cellphone pictures before I become too shy to ever post a picture again! I can't compete with these "still life with vegetables" photographs. I'm not that skilled!

Anyway. The cucumbers are rolling in! Two of my favorites are above - Lemon and Muncher. I've only tried one other Mediterranean type but the consistency of Muncher production just discourages me from venturing farther afield. I have had them, at least, 5 years ...

The Lemon cubes are mostly green, you'll notice. If you have tried them before after they turn yellow and they didn't appeal, please try them again before they really do look like lemons!

Next, I'll put a picture or two on the tomato season thread. They had best wait until I'm not so darn tired. It's been a long, sunny summer day!

Steve

Jerry said "There are a ton of small beans on the vine, but there are no blossoms
low on the plant - only where the plants are trying to grow out the top
of the trellis. Is this normal and should I have planted a second set
of weeds next to the existing plants about a month ago?"

It's sort of normal not to have too many beans low down on pole bean plants but it's best to make sure that you don't overlook them. A few ripe pods are enough to slow down/stop bean production.

Might be too late to plant more pole beans now unless the first frost comes late. Could probably still plant bush beans in a sunny area.

Tomatoes are really coming in now!

This is yesterday's (08/07/16) harvest of several types of tomatoes. The largest here is an 1884 at the far back right that is just shy of 16oz. The green tomatoes fell off the plants as I was picking - I sometimes pickle them with onions for my partner's mother who absolutely LOVES them. I pass, but I'm glad they don't go to waste! The yellow tomatoes at the front of the photo are called Cream Sausage and they are delicious! It's a shame the plant is wispy and dying off because it didn't produce much (I *might* get 50 tomatoes in total from the plant). I will probably put this on my list to try again next season with hope for better production.

Here they are nestled in the garden trug before I cleaned and weighed..

I also picked 12 poblanos yesterday. Chiles rellenos, anyone?

Fried:

Smothered in green chile and shredded Monterry Jack and thrown under the broiler:

With rice 'n beans!

After dinner I was still ambitious enough to make a huge and VERY spicy batch of pico using 8 pounds of 8 different types of heirloom tomatoes, serranos and two types of jalapeños, all mega fresh right from my own backyard. My onions aren't quite ready and my cilantro bolted long ago, so I can't call it completely homemade, but it's darn close! Look how beautiful the Cream Sausage is.. and it's amazing in the pico.

And then there's tonight's harvest (08/08/16). Far fewer tomatoes, but we have 3 one-pounders in tonight's picking - (1) 1884 @ 22oz; (2) Brandywine Sudduth's @ 18oz and (3) Red Pear Piriform @ 17oz. The rest are between 9oz and 15oz.

That's what's been going on in my kitchen the past two days. Tomorrow night the plan is to core and peel a bunch of ripe tomatoes and get them into the freezer for fall sauce-making. If I have a bunch this next weekend, I'll probably can some salsa and perhaps some crushed tomatoes. I expect to be pretty busy with tomatoes for the next 4-6 weeks, especially since my 10 paste varieties are only just barely starting to ripen now and I've hardly picked any yet..

I can't be the only one - what is everyone else picking?!?.. and preparing in their kitchens?!? :)

Wonderful, Wonderful food! And, Wonderful pictures, Nick.

Sweetcorn!

Two nights. There will be continuous corn harvest until frost.

Finally, there are some Italian sweet peppers that looked and are sweet! I'm having them right now in the spaghetti sauce with the ears of corn on the side ... Already finished my beer ... ah, summer!

Steve

Well, Nick, I'm going to go cry into my plants now while contemplating just tearing them all out after seeing how utterly pathetic they are compared to yours hahaha.

I use green tomatoes in my chili verde. What kind of poblanos do you grow?

I have never made chili verde, but I really should, especially toward the end of the season. If we have a very warm September, like we did in 2015, I usually get a huge flush of new tomatoes that will normally never ripen in time. Sometimes I can get them to ripen in a cardboard box in my basement if they matured enough before I harvested them, but I usually end up tossing a handful or two out after a few weeks of nothing. I plan to grow tomatillos next season specifically for that reason.

As far as the poblanos, I've had a packet of plain old "poblano" seeds for years that I never tried growing until this season and the plants are producing loads of fruit. They are usually very finicky producers, but they are doing well this season. They aren't getting very large, maybe 3" long, but they're gorgeous and tasty. That's all I care about.

Do you ever grow them, Zach? Are they finicky for you, too? My neighbor always has a hard time with them and gave up this year. I'll share if she's nice.

Steve, send me some corn! I love how everyone around me grows acres of corn and my 10 stalks didn't do diddly. Oh well, better luck next year.

What variety of Italian peppers are you growing? Marconi is one of my faves, any type. I have Thunderbolt in the garden this season, a hybrid version of Marconi, and love it as well. Whatever we can't eat fresh, we freeze and do what you're doing - add them to pasta sauce in December. Nothing better than the taste of the garden in the depths of mid-winter.

I think I've had Marconi every year since I've started growing the Italian sweets.

It's a nice productive variety but Giant Marconi is more of a favorite. Carmen aren't giants but the smaller plants do well. Of course ... no pepper plant amounts to much in my garden. I think they all look around when i first set them out and say to each other, "this guy's gotta be kidding!" Oh well ...

Thunderbolt, eh? I'll have to look for that one. You sure it's a sweet with that name? Reminds me of the Red Devil onions I've been growing. Wrong, wrong name! If the plants didn't conform so well with the catalog pictures, I'd never be growing them. As it was, I completely forgot the name of that onion the first season! Convenient memory helps with personal psychology ... Thunderbolt Sweet? Zap!!!

Steve

I buy the fire roasted green New Mexico chiles from the stands that pop up around here starting about.... now! Then I add tomatillos and green tomatoes. To be honest I don't have any other use for green tomatoes. But as I have lamented time and again about my tomato crop this year, even green ones will be hard to come by.

I have never grown poblanos before and I was going to next year is why I asked. Johnny's sells some hybrids that I was going to give a shot, but I was going ask you since yours look so nice.

Try buckets for your peppers, Steve. Even the bells are doing fairly well, at least they have a lot of small fruit on them right now, and they look better than they have have for me growing in the ground.

Couple salads made it into the kitchen tonight. Beet salad with shallots, lemon basil, yogurt, mustard and some spices. Then a bean and cucumber salad with blanched beans, shallot, yogurt, mustard, garlic and cinnamon basil. Both came out quite tasty.

Those salads look awesome, gj! It's so rewarding to put together dinner for a few months from items coming out of the garden, isn't it? It would be nice to grow year-round, but it's such a treat this time of year.

I had another large harvest this past Saturday morning (08/13/16). Mostly tomatoes, several approaching 24oz, but also a couple of large cucumbers, two eggplants, a crookneck squash, a golden zucchini and about 40 jalapenos. I am amazed at how early so many of my tomatoes are this season. I only have one or two varieties of 29 that I am growing that haven't produced a ripe fruit yet. Most of what you see below will be cored and put into gallon-size freezer bags over the coming days as they ripen up.

Freshly harvested, still in the trugs:

On the counter, freshly washed:

Holy $&!+, Nick! Your having a fantastic year it looks like! That's about as many tomatoes I grow iina SEASON and you got all that in one day?

Tomatillos have been good to me this year, I'm picking about 2 dozen a day off these guys, though were almost done I think. Two, one gallon freezer bags put away so far and lots of salsa made already.

Peppers, too. But I'm trying to hold off on picking any more until I'm ready to pull out the plants. I like red peppers better than green.

But these sure do smell good.

these are buran bell peppers, a Polish heirloom. They are pretty productive it seems, but the peppers have a slightly bitter taste that either ripening or, in this case, roasting should take care of.

Hey Zach - yes, this year has been incredible as far as tomatoes. The rest of the garden looks beautiful, physically, but isn't producing the way I had hoped for. I'm starting to get some ickies on the tomato plants, but that's par for the course starting in mid-late August for me.

Your tomatillos are gorgeous - make sure you share photos of whatever you do with them! As I said before, I will be growing them next year, if for nothing else because they look like fun! Is it true I need two for proper pollination? If so, I may be looking to give a lot of them away if they do well.. :)

Roasted peppers are one of my favorite things on this planet - what did you do with yours? Sandwich? Add to salsa/pico? Pickle? The possibilities are endless and delicious. My bell peppers are all turning colors now, about 3 weeks to a month earlier than normal. I'll probably be harvesting a few this weekend for the first time ever in August.

I continue to pick absolutely HUGE tomatoes off the plants - for as large as they are, they excel in the art of camouflage and can be difficult to find. I normally harvest the largest ones at the beginning of the season, but it seems the more I'm harvesting this season, the larger they're getting. One thing I will say is that mixing 6-8 different types of tomatoes to make fresh pico is one of the most satisfying and delicious ways to enjoy the summer tomato harvest. Adding in home grown jalapenos, serranos, onions (not quite yet) and cilantro and you have the main reason why I started gardening in the first place. It's so rewarding, even if we can only grow for a few months of the year.

The photos below are tomatoes I harvested on Tuesday and Wednesday (08/16/16 and 08/17/16). I harvested around 15 fruit that weighed more than a pound including several in the 22-24oz range. The varieties so far this season that are consistently producing the largest tomatoes are, in order of average size, 1884, Stump of the World, Chianti Rose, Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Uncle Mark Bagby. SOTW was by far my favorite tomato last season and it's up there again this year, though 1884 is pretty damn amazing. Several others, maybe 8 other varieties, are blowing my socks off this season, so it'll be interesting to compare all the numbers and notes at the end of the season (I keep a journal with DTM, weight, count, notes on taste, consistency, juice, seeds, etc.). It'll be difficult not to grow almost all of them again next season. I don't want to, though, because I have seeds for about 70 other varieties I still need to try for the first time and I have container space for 30.

So far I have only used to tomatillos in salsa and salsa verde so far. They are gone... no pictures (course a bowl of salsa is pretty boring stuff compared to a counter full of tomatoes lol)

I did make a pot of chili verde today and I used some of tomatillos that were in the freezer. That's where the roasted bell peppers ended up, too. I'm clearing the Hatch chiles that I got last fall out of the freezer to make room for fresh ones this year.

Fire roasted chiles and peppers usually end up in chile verde. Being the Colorado boy I am, I have a healthy addiction to the stuff, lol.

I make two kinds, one is like a stew that I make with chunks of pork (a traditional Colorado chile verde). Tonight's is more of a "sauce" that will go over chiles rellenos. The poblanos also get roasted so I can peel the skins off.

These are store bought poblanos, but the nostrils can't tell the difference, haha. I swear, roasted chile should be a scented candle flavor.

Also, you would think that King Soopers in COLORADO would know the difference between a pasilla ( a DRIED chilaca pepper) and a poblano!

Anyways, I do add them to salsa verde as well sometimes wich is really good.

Melons, galia and cantaloupe ... more like "off the deck and into the kitchen" ... k? They have a fresh melon fragrance and flavor but the sugars probably don't develop properly. I'm not gonna sprinkle sugar on 'em!

They are really quite alright if I mix them with yogurt. ... another very good melon season comes to an end.

Steve

Well they look nice maybe not the right climate for the melons? I think next year I'll try some melons now that there's extra space with the Westminster garden.

Mostly beans, lots of peppers, eggplants and bucket loads of green tomatoes coming into the kitchen. Must have picked 500 peppers in the last couple days and 200 tomatoes. Hopefully a fair amount of the green tomatoes ripen up.

I'm not sure what veggies this climate is right for, Greg. The alfalfa and wheat fields are no clue. I drive past a truck farm near the big veggie garden. I think they are responsible for several of the fields of sweet corn, nearby. One field has summer squash, year after year. A field across the road has had green beans the last two years, before that - either alfalfa or corn. This second year of beans, they did no harvesting ..! I don't know what went wrong with those beans on 8 or 10 acres. They might be just taking the crop insurance.

Peppers as a commercial crop would be a mistake, I'm sure. Having a good tomato year out of every 4 or 5 is discouraging but a "terrible year" -- is maybe once a decade. It's taken many seasons to find melon varieties that do well and I don't think I'm being fooled by warmer than normal summers because there have been some cool ones, now and then.

The carrots are not so great this year, although planting too many square feet gives me plenty. The parsnips, on the other hand, are big, sweet and really, really tough to get out of the ground! Sauteed together is something I learned to do last year. They have complimentary flavors! They are especially good with additions of sweet onions, potatoes and leftover roast beef. Everything diced before they go in the pan and with a grind of back pepper and an egg to poach on top -- hash! I've got my Tabasco sauce!

Steve