I did find one lemon apple cucumber that's not quite ready yet, but maybe in a few more days. I can't wait to see what they taste like.
The beans aren't ready yet, but soon. I did pick and eat two beans, but that's about it.
Most exciting was that I picked the first tatume squash. It was probably about five inches across and looked a lot like a round zucchini. We had it for dinner, with basil, lemon, and Parmesan cheese over pasta, and it tastes just like zucchini, too. Great stuff. There are quite a few growing on the vines now, and with any luck we'll be giving them away by the end of next week (or sooner).
One big question is how much people will be willing to pick through the vines to find the produce. Right now, everything is pretty close to the ground and hidden under large leaves. You really have to search if you want to find anything. My hope is that soon we'll have more vegetables growing higher up on the fence where they're more visible, so people will take them.
I'm also not sure how this will work with green beans. Will people take just one or two? Or will they come back and pick enough to help make a meal (which would make the most sense)? I might put a basket out and put already picked beans (and other stuff) in there, if it seems that people aren't taking it.
The transformation of the garden has been pretty incredible over just the past few weeks. This is what it looked like on August 11 and what it looks like now:
I need to reattach all of our signs. They must have blown down in the big storm on Saturday. Someone was kind enough to wedge them into the fence, but I need to attach them more permanently (and maybe make a couple new ones).
Today the weather was perfect to just hang out and water and chat with passersby. A perfect way to spend part of the afternoon.
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One thing I always notice at our "pick your own" CSA is that people often don't get down low enough to find the ripe produce on plants. The best peas, climbing beans, squash are usually down low on the vine, hidden under leaves.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we'll have to put up a sign encouraging people to really get down.
ReplyDeleteBTW - the plants look great. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI have been following your progress and just must congratulate you. I appreciated the before-and-after photos . . . I was just thinking "Man, didn't they just stick those plants in the ground?" Being from Minnesota, that's encouraging . . . I see that maybe even next year if I don't get my butt in gear to plant on Memorial Day weekend I can still grow some stuff. Kudos to your beautification and farming efforts! Keep up the updates!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I know a lot of us were worried that if we planted on July 19th (!) that we wouldn't see any actual vegetables. But the way the plants have sprung up in these past few weeks has been incredible. And it doesn't frost here until October, so we should have all of September (fingers crossed) for harvest, and maybe well into October.
ReplyDelete