This morning I headed out to the garden after yesterday’s rain and flooding to take stock and see what needed be harvested. I filled a small tub to overflowing with tomatoes, a few jalapenos, and a handful of mixed greens (sweet potato, carrot, dandelion, dill) for our pet rabbits. The sweet potato foliage has doubled with the recent weeks of rain, and I can only hope that the lushness I see reflects what’s happening underground. Next to that bed, the butternut squash vines continue their beautiful green growth.

Although just a week ago I fully believed we’d still have pole beans now, the previously bushy monster of vines today looks just as skeletal as the bush beans I have yet to finish pulling up. And that suddenly, the frantic season of picking beans has come to an end. The zucchini similarly has given up, thanks to squash bugs and vine borers. We had a good run, but now it’s time to focus on fall crops and the tomatoes, which might keep producing until the frost comes.

Tomorrow afternoon at the farmer’s market, you can expect lots of tomatoes and garlic as well as fresh herbs and hand-knit and crocheted items. Sunshine and mild temperatures are in the forecast, so come out and enjoy the lovely weather!

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The bush beans have taken a nosedive, including the dragon tongue beans, and I’ve begun pulling out the brown, skeletal plants in the first bed. So this may be your last week to purchase beans, unless the shaggy green giant that is a teepee of pole beans decides to surprise me with an abundant harvest.

Tomatoes, though, are still going strong. I have a plethora of lemony green zebra tomatoes, as well as Abraham Lincolns and a few Aunt Glees and Hungarian hearts. I also still have plenty of garlic, and I might cut some fresh basil, so you can make some tomato sauce (or soup) this weekend!

As you can see in the top photo, the butternut squash vines are lush and beautiful next to the tangle of tomatoes. I’m trying an heirloom variety this year called orange butternut, which the seed catalog promises will be as vibrantly orange as it is green now, rather than the usual dull tan.

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In addition to new plant varieties, I enjoy discovering friends in the garden: toads, spiders, bees, snakes, praying mantis. I don’t often have a camera on me outside, but I did manage to get a few shots of garden wildlife over the past week or so. And yes, that spider is about as big as my palm. She appears to be a black and yellow garden spider (yes, that’s the name), and I’m happy to have her helping the several praying mantis with pest control.

The New Market Farmer’s Market will be open tomorrow afternoon, though with rain in the forecast, you may want to keep an eye on their Facebook page for updates. As always, if we get rained out or you can’t make it to the market tomorrow, you are welcome to contact me for on-farm or in-town pickup.

***There will be no New Market Farmer’s Market tomorrow afternoon.***

The tomato vines are producing increasing amounts of fruit every day, and as often happens around this time of year, I am running out of space to store these beautiful tomatoes! The bright red Abraham Lincolns have a wonderful tomato flavor, the Hungarian hearts are big, beefy sauce tomatoes, the unique green zebras offer a fun color combo as well as lemony flavor, and the enormous Aunt Glees are perfect for sandwiches with their bread-sized slices and meaty texture.

As the tomatoes take off, the bush beans seem to be winding down. Stress from deer and bean beetles combined with the fact that it’s getting late in the season are resulting in tired-looking plants and lower bean yields. The dragon tongue beans are still doing decently, though, and the pole beans have begun flowering, so I should still have some beans to offer in the coming weeks.

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In the kitchen this week, I canned a batch of dilly beans (pickled green beans), which it turns out the dragon tongue variety is great for. I also made homemade pizza, as essential as tomato sandwiches this time of year, with whole wheat zucchini crust topped with fresh basil, minced garlic, tomato slices, red onion, mozzarella, and parmesan.

Want to make some of these yourself? Although the market is closed tomorrow, you can still contact me via email or Facebook Messenger for on-farm pickup or in-town delivery. I have a limited amount of beans (green and dragon tongue) and zucchini as well as plenty of tomatoes, garlic, basil (mmm, pesto!), and rosemary.

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