Harvesting Summer Delights

Now that summer has arrived, it comes baring some gifts in the garden! I’ve been anticipating picking fresh squash, green beans, other peppers and tomatoes for a while now. We’ve gotten several handfuls of shishito peppers and dwarf tomatoes in previous weeks.

Those two varieties have been quite prolific, and tasty. The dwarf tomatoes fit perfectly in our Original Greenstalk planter too, which is nice. I really need to trellis the other tomatoes, but the rain and storms have been nonstop for a few weeks now.

Before getting into summer picks though, I’d like to make a note that I sowed pumpkins and winter squash July 3rd. I usually jot it down in my garden journal, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

First Round

@rootingforsunshine

Exciting little summer harvest this morning! 🌻 #homestead #garden #gardening #homesteading #harvest #summer #vegetables #selfsufficient #trueleafmarket #bakercreekseeds #sustainability #growyourownfood #food

♬ Lofi Vibes – Gentle State

The video above was the first small harvest we got out of the garden. Yellow straightneck squash, provider/royal burgundy/dragon tongue beans, orange hat dwarf tomatoes, shishito peppers, banana pepper, bumblebee cherry tomato, and a yellow variety of tomato I can’t think of at the moment.

Second Round

After the first little harvest, I wasn’t able to get into the garden for several days due to the storms. Yesterday was finally clear outside, so I immediately went foraging for garden treasures that morning.

To say it was rough hunting for tomatoes in our now tomato jungle is an understatement (I was on high alert, making sure our monster spiders here didn’t climb on me in the process lol). The nonstop heavy rain has put a damper on setting up trellises and weeding.

Our squash has been producing like crazy this year! Last year vine borers got a hold of ours, unfortunately. We were only able to enjoy a couple of squash and zucchini that time. Our plants seem to be doing really good so far this round.

Collected our very first ever bell and banana peppers! I was so awe struck seeing this Purple Beauty ready to be picked. Shishitos are still performing great of course. Buena Mutala peppers are now forming in the Greenstalk tower.

Overall, this second harvest was pretty great! Squash, grey zucchini, shishitos, banana peppers, purple beauty bell pepper, blush-tommy toes-gold nugget-sunrise bumblebee-orange hat tomatoes, and green beans.

@rootingforsunshine

Harvested some more goodies today that I haven’t been able to get to because of the storms. So many tomatoes 😍 #garden #gardening #homestead #homesteading #growyourownfood #organic #harvest #food #vegetables #summer #sustainability

♬ Calm LoFi song(882353) – S_R

There was some tomatoes that had split due to all the rain, but I managed to save some of them to save seeds from. I didn’t isolate the buds to keep them from cross pollinating, but it’s seeds nonetheless.

This is the most we’ve ever gotten out of the garden so far, and it feels great. Especially seeing a whole fridge drawer packed with food that WE grew! How awesome is that?! I can’t describe in words the feeling I get from this.

The feeling of knowing exactly where it came from, seeing the rewards of our efforts and hard work, knowing it wasn’t sprayed with harmful chemicals, it’s just fresh healthy delicious food.

✨I’ll sign off by sharing these beauties with you all. They’ve came back every year so far, and never disappoint! Happy gardening, friends. ✨