August already

August Already

It's hard to believe it's August 8th.

 

Tomatoes of 2020

I picked the first of the Heirlooms, a "Mortgage Lifter" tomato yesterday. It was huge, many more to come.  The tomato plants so far outgrew their cages by more than four feet this year they all fell over, didn't seem to hurt them any just harder to see the fruits.

We picked a few of our first 's of 2020 last week, a black cherry we picked up at Tanglewood Gardens greenhouse in Bedford, NH they grow 10-20 different Heirloom tomato varieties, this same tomato variety last year was super sweet.  

Black Cherry Tomatoes

 

Big Toads 

Along with more bees Honey, Bumble and Yellow-jacket than we've seen in years, this Big Ol' Toad as well as numerous leopard frogs are hopping all over the farm that need to be watched for when mowing the lawn...

 

Blackberries 

The thorn-less blackberry bushes Jarrod got me a few years back have started yielding crazy big berried, some of the berries are the size of strawberries.  A couple of cups of the berries so far, I'll keep adding to the bag in the freezer every couple days we need 4-6 cups to make a Blackberry Cobbler.  If I can keep the deer away these bushes grow canes that are 12'+ feet long in a year.

No we didn't grow corn this year

We did get the first local corn of the year, we picked up a dozen ears at Devriendt Farm Stand in Goffstown Saturday, shucked them, ate a couple, and froze 8 or so ears.  We'll probably do that several times before the season is gone. 

Pickle Cukes 

These are burp-less to boot.  I think other than our Swiss Chard this Burp-less Cucumber is the top producer so far in the garden.

More Garden Updates

We've decided to expand the garden again next year, probably till the expansion up this fall adding another 10' wide by 50' strip along the side.  The Summer Squashes, and Broccoli are winding down, garden clean-up begins. We ate a summer squash earlier this week and it had a distinctive fresh corn flavor, not sure how that happened, but yum!  Wax beans are coming in, pole beans are flowering like crazy just no beans yet.  Potatoes appear ready to dig, Collards and Chard are still producing, I'll pick some this week to see how big they are.  Winter squashes, Acorn, Blue Hubbard, and Buttercup are producing like weeds, the vines are up, over, and out of the fenced garden with some large squask hanging on the fence itself, there's at least one basketball size Blue Hubbard we're keeping an eye on.

Blue Hubbard

The Obligatory Deer Pics

Covid-19 seems to be getting worse in many cities in the US. here not so much we'll remain secluded just the same.  Restaurants are opening up around here which still seems a bit weird, we occasionally get take-out wearing masks at the local sub shop or Chinese place.

Tropical Storm Isaias was a complete bust here, I think it rained maybe an hour and we had some 30+ mph gusts. Still way too dry here, I think the dust bowl is making a come back.

Stay Safe Out There!