A two bucket picking day

When the weather turns hot and humid, we always see an increase in what we harvest. As you can see in the picture that still holds true today. We love 2 bucket days!!

Heirloom tomatoes

Heirloom tomatoes are more difficult to grow than the newer hybrids but their taste and in some cases size are much better. Heirlooms need just the right soil and tend to be very  large plants while producing less fruit. Some may say that staking and tending to the plants is too much effort for too few tomatoes.
We grow pink brandywine and when everything is just right this makes it all worthwhile. Almost 30 ounces of great flavor with just 2 tomatoes.
Eat local, fresh from garden to table.

It seems early

It seems early but the tomatoes are here and ready to be picked. A stroll through the garden and outside terrace beds yielded tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash and a good haul of red okra.  We didn't pick peppers today but they are full and ready also. With our small batch operation, there are only so  many hours in the day and sometimes we prioritize over what we need to create now based on what we have available.
The markets this past week were outstanding as well. We sold down to zero on several items and actually sold 27 breads on Friday. Even had a customer buy our product, then go to his truck to sample it before returning to give us a thumbs up sign.

Eat local, garden to table!!

Market produce this Friday and Saturday

This weekend at the markets, we will have a variety of fresh produce along with our jams and jellies.
Mostly sweet peppers such as bananas, marconi, candy cane and cubanelle but also hot peppers like cayenne and jalapenos.
Fresh zucchini bread will go fast so arrive early or email us ahead of time to reserve your bread.
Hope to see you there. Fresh from garden to table.

This is kind of early

Put this in the category "this is kind of early."
Tomatoes ready for sandwiches on June 17th is a bit unusual.
However, with the scorching hot weather yet to make an appearance, the growing season has been excellent.
Last year the first tomato sandwich was closer to July 4th but then again this year we were 2-3 weeks earlier planting.

Squash, Zucchini, Green Beans, and Cucumbers

It's that time of the year again. The time gardeners eagerly anticipate day by day. It's harvesting time! 
We plant then wait patiently and watch the plants grow. This year the garden was planted earlier than ever before, mid to late March. Now we will see the results and know if you really can grow delicious vegetables planting that early. So far the answer is a resounding yes we can. Of course,  the weather has cooperative for the most part too. 
We are in the middle of picking Squash, Zucchini, Green Beans, Cucumbers with Okra, Peas, Figs, Corn and Tomatoes coming soon.

A sink full of beans

Despite the high humidity and wet garden, the beans needed picking. An hour later, we had harvested ten pounds of green and purple beans which we will freeze, eat, give away and take to the markets. The Ichiban Eggplant are close to picking too and that's always exciting. We planted them in one of our new beds this year (used to be grass) and they seem to love the area. 
Eat Local!!

Purple Beans have arrived

We picked about 10% of our bean harvest this morning and that included these beautiful purple beans. They certainly add a contrast to the green beans. We'll eat, give away and freeze these but the next several pickings we'll bring to the markets for you to enjoy. Fresh from the backyard is what we like the best. Garden to table!

Update for this weekend

We are looking forward to the markets this weekend. Just a heads up, if you are interested in the breads, be there early or preorder today. We already have several preorders for bread and it seems we are selling out earlier each weekend. 
We'll also have Jalapeno peppers, Marconi peppers and Cubanelle peppers too.
Hope to see you there!!

Eating from the garden

With our garden gearing up for the summer, we have a goal of eating something from the garden each and every day.  Whether it's cucumbers in a salad, roasted zucchini, peppers and squash or a favorite we had last night.....our 
garden vegetable pizza. Our rosemary and basil herbs seasoned the dough then we added fresh picked squash, zucchini and peppers. Of course we did add a bit of cheese too. It was delicious! Soon we'll add eggplant and lunchbox peppers to the mix. Definitely garden to table.