Week 11 Peppers and Cherry Tomatoes

Fragrant carnations we started this winter from seed are blooming. Usually newly seeded perennials won't bloom until their second year. We are happily surprised.

Beautiful lilies blooming.

Delicate pink lily. These are also fragrant.

Colorful yarrow we planted last year from seed. It is loving its second season.

Another surprise is the red and white Sweet William blooming in its first summer.

The climbing morning glory really is glorious this morning.

A peppermint striped carnation. Very fragrant, too.

Honeysuckle up close and personal. Once the buds open up they fade to the yellow you see in the background. After the bloom is open the hummingbirds go for the nectar located in the bottom of these "tubular" flowers. Sometimes we pick one and suck the nectar out of the bottom of the tube. Very sweet. Yum.

A few of the last sweet peas. We will save seeds from the pods you might see in the background. Who knows what colorful flowers we might get next year from them.

A bumble bee enjoying this dahlia.

One of our new dahlias. A very organized looking flower. Many little cupped petals surrounding one another. Dark in the middle, lighter on the outside edges. Beautiful.

A pristine white dahlia.  Doesn't it look crisp?

This is a frilly dahlia. Love it!

Chris' daughter Carla had a couple hours to help harvest today. She is picking the prickly zucchini. We like to plant flowers within and around the vegetables to help bring in bees.

Looking down the row of peppers. These are mostly pointing upward so they are the Hungarian Yellow Wax peppers. Hot.

My great niece is petting the friendly farm chicken with a feather. How sweet is that?

Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold potatoes.

Lemon cucs.

Green beans with a little ant visiting.

Medium size tomatoes are starting to ripen. Green Zebra, Indigo Apple and the large wavy one is Costoluto Genovese.

Left side, Principe Borghese, the drying tomato. We just slice them in half the long way, put them in the dryer cut side up, skin on, and dry them. Ziploc after they are cooled and stick them in the freezer for longer storage. Wonderful in the winter time to add to just about anything.

Cantaloupe and yellow crookneck squash share a box.

Once the cherry tomatoes were mixed they were even more beautiful.

I couldn't decide which photo to add to the blog, so here are several.

Up close.

A little further away.

These make me want to go eat tomatoes!

Sweet banana peppers, pointing down.

Anaheim peppers.

Sweet Cayenne. 

Cubanelle.

This patty pan squash is so large it needed its own box. Must have missed it last week. :)

Lemon cuc in hand. Is she eyeing the potatoes or my water bottle???

Lunch today. Wow. The spread on the left item is cream cheese with an Asian spice blended in. Grated carrots, sliced sweet peppers and cherry tomatoes top it off. The garlicky, onion, Parmesan beans were tasty too.

Light yellow mini bell peppers.

This is either an Orange Blaze pepper or an Orange You Sweet pepper. Both are sweet peppers.

Orange mini bell.

A slightly different shaped orange mini bell.

Sweet Banana.

The large, light green pepper is Cubanelle. Mild.

A plethora of sweet and mild peppers. 

Red onions before they are cleaned up and after.

They almost sparkle.

The most moist cake you will ever eat. Chocolate zucchini cake. It was so very delicious. Yes, we know we are spoiled!

Moon and Stars watermelon out in the field. The melon and its leaves have little yellow speckles and occasionally a large yellow dot. This variety of melon is "open pollinated" which means we can save the seeds from year to year and plant them. Anna saved seeds last year and we planted them this year. Pretty sweet!

This Love Lies Bleeding is trailing down, down, down.

Purple statice and sunny sunflowers.

Zinnias with blue and light pink statice.

Another with zinnias, statice and Love Lies Bleeding added in.

White snapdragons, pink zinnias and a lovely dark pink lily.

A very solemn flower girl.

As it was a very warm day, my niece Angie brought my van around to the shade for me. We wanted to air it out before loading up my produce. My great niece and nephew were playing in it with many of the seats folded down. Can you see all the pretty decorations they put in my car? Sniff, sniff. Zinnias everywhere! Thanks guys!

"Aunt Lorrie, do you like my bouquet?"
Grins!
"Oh yes!"

My niece Anna along with her husband Scott and their cherubs on the tractor. Love how the littlest one's pony tail looks like Scott has a soul patch.
I love this photo of them!

See you next week.