Our butternut squash did well enough for me to make about 4 gallons of baby food for little Ruby-roo before it succumbed to the squash bugs that ate the pumpkins, squash, and zucchini plants to death. Grrrr!
After obliterating the squash, the stupid pests moved on to the tomatoes. We've probably picked about 50 total, and don't foresee picking many more this year. Boo-hoo! I was really looking forward to putting up a bunch of diced tomatoes so that we didn't have to buy them throughout the rest of the year.
The jalapenos and banana-peppers (which must have cross-bred with some habaneros from down the street because some of them are seriously hot as FIRE) are doing well, thankfully. But seriously, what can you do with a million jalapenos when you have no tomatoes to make salsa? Grrr.... We've resorted to purreeing them in the food processor and putting them in baby food jars then freezing them. It really is a great way to use jalapenos because you have total control over how spicy you make something with them (in chili, spread on a sandwich, on pizza, etc.)
The cantaloupe are also doing pretty well. I might or might not have eaten two entire cantaloupe by myself one afternoon...
The okra are doing crazy well, so we've enjoyed fried okra once and have sliced up several quarts of them to use later this year in gumbo. Hooray!
The cucumbers are also doing crazy well. We've probably picked no less than 100 so far. If you live nearby and would like some, let me know! They are very very good cucumbers!
Sorry if this post is negative - it just really bums me out that the garden is doing so poorly this year. Here's some pictures of the babe with some of the garden produce. Yes, we picked a pumpkin in mid-July - I don't know why it was ready that early, but we are going to enjoy it since it looks like the pumpkins will not be making it to Halloween-time!
3 comments:
Poor Michelle! Gardens are like that. We had a bumper crop of apples this year and most of them went to the chickens because I was pregnant and gave birth right when they were ready. My mom and grandma did make one apple pie and a bit of applesauce, but there wasn't enough to can any. And I feel your pain on the peppers. We still have 90% of the ones we put in the freezer last year!
Yeah, our garden has been extra sad this year, too.
We only got 2 zucchini before our plants tanked this summer.
My cantaloupe looks about like yours ... so it's ready to pick? I've never grown them before. So I'm just learning.
Too bad we don't live closer coz I could really hook you up in the tomato department!
The cantaloupe in that picture is actually under-ripe! Don't pick it until the skin under the net-type-stuff is yellowish orange. Also - it should smell like a cantaloupe and sound hollow when you thump on it with your knuckles. Happy picking!
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