Great weekend

It was a great weekend at the markets. We sold out of some of our more popular jellies and sold much of the produce we had on hand. Don't worry though, we are already working to add more supply for next week. 
Peppers, green beans, cucumbers are in good supply and the tomatoes are moving forward too. In fact, we will make tomato jam this week. We have been out of that delicious jam for a long while.

                                                  Basil

 

Cucumber vines on our back deck

Corn and tomatoes

We picked several early ears of corn yesterday and today we had another good early harvest of tomatoes.
It's always an exciting time of the summer when we start picking these two crops. Sounds like a sweet corn, cucumber and tomato salad tonight.
We will be at the markets again this week. We will bring peppers- Bells, jalapenos, lunch box, shishitos and cubanelles, also squash, finishing salts and our jams, jellies and relishes.

 

The beginning of the two bucket harvest

Today was the first time this season we actually needed two buckets to carry in our harvest. We picked squash, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, green beans and our first picking of corn.  
(the squirrels are already doing their own version of a  harvest) 
We had a great time over the weekend at the farmer's markets and look forward to returning next week.
Check out how we utilize our fresh vegetables during the summer- eggplant, pepper, basil and tomato pizza. YUM!!

This week

This week we are creating an abundance of jellies and jams, as we begin the vegetable harvest.  A variety  of peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and even tomatoes are beginning to produce.
We've already canned pickles, pineapple jalapeno jelly, pepper jelly and zucchini peach jam. We are also making more of our finishing salts from our dried herbs which have been very popular.
We will be at the Forsyth market Friday and the Monticello market on Saturday. We will have eggplant, jalapenos, banana peppers, lunchbox peppers and cubanelles. Stop by and see us if you're in the area!

Friday and Saturday markets

We had a great time meeting new friends in Forsyth and revisiting friends in Monticello.  We sold produce, finishing salts and of course the jams and jellies. In fact, we sold out of several of our more popular items! We will be working diligently this week to restock our supplies now that the vegetables are beginning their harvest cycles.

Many conversations this weekend with customers centering around availability of fresh figs. I thought our timetable for figs was about three more weeks but look what we found this afternoon! As you can see our trees are loaded with figs. Hopefully they'll continue to ripen early and we can keep the squirrels away! Several of these were so large it filled the palm of my hand.

Tuesday pickings

We finally had a sunny morning after 4-5 days of rain. The vegetables are enjoying the sunshine and temperatures in the 80's.
This week we'll be at the Forsyth Farmer's Market, Friday and the Market on the Square in Monticello, Saturday. Come see us if you can!
I'm not certain what produce we'll bring but it's looking like banana peppers, lunch box peppers and possibly some radishes and other peppers. It all depends on what's ready to pick.
*** UPDATE We will have Banana Peppers, Bell Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Lunchbox Peppers, Radishes
We will definitely have our delicious zucchini bread for sale on Saturday along with our fresh dried herb finishing salts.
Check back later in the week for more updates.

Finally some rain

We adjusted our schedule this weekend because of the rain and went to Forsyth Main Street Market Friday instead of the Monticello Market on Saturday. We had a great time meeting some new friends. Definitely will begin making this a Friday habit.
As you can see from the pictures banana peppers, cubanelle peppers, and marconi peppers are beginning to arrive in the garden. We love stuffed peppers! 

Wednesday in the garden

Look what surprised us in the Backyard garden this morning- a fully ripened lunch box pepper. Lunch box peppers are sweet and come in red and orange colors and are usually the size of a jalapeno. We have four of these pepper plants: two red and two orange. They are growing in buckets this year. We over wintered one of last years plants and are still picking red lunch box peppers from that particular plant. Always experimenting in the garden.

Just a normal Tuesday picking

We had another good early harvest- cucumbers, zucchini, squash and peppers. 
It's an exciting time because the weather is starting to cool off a bit with rain forecasted this weekend (free water.) Plus, we know what's growing and the time to harvest peppers, beans, more cucumbers, corn and finally tomatoes is drawing closer. For instance, we can carry in our harvest without buckets or pans now. Later this month that won't be possible.
We are planning to do the Market in Monticello again this Saturday. Last week we sold all of our zucchini, radishes and zucchini bread. We'll have produce this week but we won't know until we pick later in the week what we'll bring.
That's the way it is when you have a backyard garden.