My tomatoes are entering maximum production. I'm preserving pasta sauce and salsa. My spicy peppers have been very productive. The pumpkins enveloped my egg plants and cucumbers, so I'm not sure whether they've done much. We've had quite a bit of rain on and off since the beginning of July, so have not had to water. I have had quite a bit of tomatoes splitting, but I guess nothing can be perfect. I'm saving tomato seeds for future years and swaps, so even the split fruits aren't completely wasted.

Martha

Today was probably our last pleasant day for the coming future and it is a beauty.

I have also been picking lots of peppers. Already had the chef come by and he took an entire tray but this is what I still have to left. Would love some ideas for quick processing these.

The heat will be back tomorrow.

Cindy VgQn de-seeds ours and slices or dices them up to freeze in ziplocks. We'll use them during the winter in recipes, soups, chili, etc. and also add to our frozen tomatoes to make salsa when it's cooler. ....Down here they're predicting 99F Tues-Weds-Thurs, Ugh! I'll need to cover/shade the cabbage transplants for that. Hope it rains by Fri as they also say.

Lovely peppers Cindy, we have lots on and need to get busy too. Made a double batch of salsa earlier in the week but did not make a dent.

My tomatoes outside are just coming in now. The hoop house is a month ahead and we're now into the second pick in there. It still looks to me like we will be short for sauce again this year.

I spent quite a bit of time today wandering through the dahlias so here's some pictures.

A few more along with some peppers.

Thanks Len and vgkg.

Hopefully I'll get to some of the peppers tomorrow. Not feeling great today.

Do I need to blanch them after I cut them into rings?

VgQn does not blanch them, they seem ok even several months later in the freezer. I tried not blanching broccoli once, now that did not work out well. It tasted grassy and tough once cooked.

Thanks, vgkg.

Does anybody cook down some tomatoes and use them in scrambled eggs?

I heat a fry pan, bit of olive oil, put in cut up tomatoes, cook covered/uncovered for about 20 minutes. Then make some scrambled eggs and add in the cooked tomatoes.

Does anybody cook down some tomatoes and use them in scrambled eggs?

I make a tomato sauce (Shashuka-style with gochujang) and add beaten eggs to scramble rather than whole eggs for the typical poach. Serve it over toast. Makes a great dinner.

https://www.marionskitchen.com/spicy-asian-shakshuka/

Sounds good, we have sliced tomatoes on the side of our scrambled eggs but haven't tried blending them to cook up together.

It's something my father used to do. I'd think it goes back some generations before that.

Nice peppers Cindy and Len. Love the tomatoes Michael.

Banana, Avocado, and Cherry tree (not sure if the Cherry tree is still alive). It has been a brutal summer around here. Two and a half months 100 or above every day has made it almost impossible to grow anything.

Sweet potatoes

Asparagus is still going strong. For any asparagus growers out there: How long should I let these plants go? These are first year plants and I read that it is a good idea to let them grow to strengthen the roots.

Man-o-Man it's Hot outside, who said it was Sept? oh, me, nyuk. 99F today, took some pics this morning before it got too hot....

Here's a mess of sweet potatoes, too hot to start digging, might bury me.

Here's the poor cabbage transplants, covered with fencing to keep out a pesky rabbit and they are covered with a stretch of black weed blocker (rolled up on the left)

The young turnips below, planted after corn plot #4 was harvested. Compst down the middle of the 2 rows, the other half of the trellis (used for peas back in Spring) will be planted with more turnips next week.

The banana peppers are still going strong, the other hot peppers (red) are volunteers from 3 years back.

...more pics in next post...

Our one Eggplant and it's neighbor Jalapeno.

One of 2 Bartlett Pears...

Here's the other Bartlett...

..and here's the Keifer Pear....

Many of these pears are out of my reach, even with my 10' pole picker & 8' ladder. I could not thin them out last Spring (up there) so they look like grapes in spots and some branches have snapped.

Can't leave these out, gave 5 of them away today, tomorrow I'll be picking the last 5.

Awesome harvests Vgkg, those melons look tasty

Richard I let the asparagus turn brown before I cut down the ferns. Next year resist the urge to harvest any of those new spears. They should get quite a bit bigger and feed the roots again.

Thank for the advice Len-appreciate it

Talk about heat. I'm the one that's been under the heat (hell) dome

100's everyday for days at a time...Grrrr....

I'm trying to get a fall garden started.

Here's what I've been having to do:

Green beans and green peas kept wetted down and under shade cloth tunnels.

Okie HU

2 Big storms flanked us last night resulting in hail, downed trees, and major power outages to our east & west as we threaded that needle. Picked up a bunch of fallen pears this morning and re-tied some tomato plants but thankfully no real damage done. Today should be our last Hot one only reaching the mid-90s with more storms expected over the weekend and a cooling trend ahead. Just 1/2" rain here last nite and we do need more. Keeping an eye on Hurricane Lee as it "should" miss the east coast by next weekend, time will tell....

From a small second planting of watermelons, I harvested a really nice watermelon...probably Sweetheart. It is the juiciest watermelon ever and very sweet. Also I harvested a Burpee Early Hybrid Crenshaw...very good. This is apprieciated as my regular watermelons had some degree of mature vine decline. They look very good until about 2 weeks from harvest.

Vgkg. It looks like you have a Charlene watermelon on the shelf....long light green.

Wayne I don't know where that one came from? After my first 2 melon plantings failed I had to buy some transplants locally and they were labeled as "Jubilee" and "Seedless" with a "pollinator". I figured that lighter one was a rouge Charleston Grey but you're most likely right if it were the pollinator. More storms coming up from NC as I type, they may get here in 3 hours if they hold together...

We had some serious t-storms yesterday of much needed rain. 1.25" of rain total.

So very glad to have it.

Vgkg - (or anybody else) What’s the best way to hold watermelon as long as possible? Towards the end of the season here and I have more that we can eat/share right away.

Storing watermelons has been a challenge, esp in the recent heat. I keep ours under the outside lean-to (pic below) which at least shades them but it's not much help with temps around 100F. I'll keep 4-5 in the garage fridge and rotate the others into the fridge over time. They will eventually get mealy inside and by Oct many will meet their fate in the compost pile. If we had a root cellar that would stretch them out a little longer. Giving most of them away is what I try to do before they deteriorate.

Nice sweet potato harvest, Margi. And your watermelons are always stunning, vgkg.

We ended up getting rain overnight and I didn't even know it. Looks like around 1.1" total. Next chance of rain looks like it will be Tuesday.

Temps are keeping all of my plants alive and producing. The first year we lived here, the first killing frost was Sept, 26th.

Vgkg - How long do you think a watermelon would stay ”good” if stored whole in the fridge?

Itsmce mine last about 4 weeks in the fridge but that varies a bit. Melons with a thicker rind can last longer than thin rind melons but a lot depends on the variety and if it was picked under or over ripe. The older ones that get a bit spongy around the seeds are better eating closer to the rind. A few years ago I grew a variety which was advertised to stay good up until Thanksgiving, well, maybe by Halloween ;-)

I dug up the first row of sweet potatoes today and they are plentiful, the pears are coming in heavy too. We'll probably can some pear sauce this weekend when we're expecting a good rain (hopefully not too much) from the tropical thing predicted to crawl up the east coast Sat/Sun. Still picking some tomatoes, lots of peppers too. The fall crops look good, still young but they like this cooler weather.

Glad I dug up those sweet potatoes before the TS hit, we got 3.5" of rain but no power failure here. The ground is littered with many dozens of pears this morning so we'll be canning pear sauce later today. The fall garden won't need any watering for some time as temps will be in the low 70's for at least a week.

We ended up with 3.3" of rain out of tropical storm Ophelia.

This is normally the time of year that we get a killing frost. Looks like it will be holding off for a while. Global warming???

In the past our 1st frost was around mid-Oct but more recently it tends to be around Halloween. Been busy cleaning up the summer garden, that heavy rain made it much easier to pull up the weeds and spent melon vines & tomato plants. So far the fall crops look very good and they liked that rain and the low 70's this week.

Still have the cabbages caged-in due to one rabbit that is still hanging around, it doesn't have a mate as far as I can tell. The pear trees are still loaded even though we picked up about 100 off the ground which the TS winds knocked down, many of these pears are huge at 2 lbs. The persimmons are showing a hint of orange now.

Not much Produce this year, but lots of Hummingbirds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8dlEg5v17k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8YQPSt55Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8552fk97FP4

I just harvested my first paw-paw fruits.

Have any of you eaten them? If so, what did you think?

I tried a paw-paw about 50 years ago and if memory serves it tasted like a banana with a custard-like texture, not bad. The trees grew wild along the banks of the James river back then.

They are indigenous to VA.

Probably will not try one until tomorrow as we already have dinner planned.

Well Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah where did Sept go? After a long cool & cloudy week it looks like the next 7 days will be dry, sunny, and around 80F. Warmer than normal but I'll take it with ease, the late sweet potatoes should get a good growth spurt and the fall crops will welcome the sunshine after this past dreary week. I had to fence in the carrots now that the local bunny has found them, the cabbages are outgrowing their caging so time to expand their protection. This bunny has so far avoided my hav-a-hart traps.