The High Season

Two days ago, I picked two overflowing baskets of vegetables plus the carrots and beets that wouldn't fit in the baskets. Last night, Adam informed me that I really need to go out and pick beans or they are going to get too large. The vegetable drawers in the refrigerator are stuffed to the gills. And last week, I found this:

The giant and the gherkin

Cucumbers blend in really well with their foliage and so it is very easy to miss a pickling cucumber and have it grow to a very large size where it loses its value for pickling, but still can be used for slicing.

The first few months of vegetable gardening are mostly manageable - there's the bed preparation and planting, which is time-consuming, and the weeding and staking and harvesting of lettuce and other early summer plants... but now we're into the high season. The garden seems to have hit its stride and is churning out produce like crazy. It's exhilarating and exhausting, amazing and overwhelming. And fortunately, very very tasty.

FYI - I've fallen off the horse with weighing and reporting on just how much produce I've been picking, but I will try to get a report together. It's going to be really interesting to compare this year to last.