Shady Maple Farm CSA: Week 12 So much is growing!

Two different types of cantaloupe. Can you see the different netting honeydew on them? Tight netting and loose netting. There are also three in the lower right part of the photo.

Add captionWe only spray our fruit trees for what's called apple scab. The spray is lime sulfur and is organic. The marks you see on these are from a coddling moth. They lay their eggs/larva and the critter crawls into the core area and leaves behind a substance like sawdust. All we do is cut around the area and the rest is all edible. It can be kinda gross sometime, but the rest of the apple is just fine!

Italian prunes, 1st picking.

Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes.

Our first digging of Yukon Gold potatoes. When cooked they have a creamy texture.

Buckets of green beans. These are bush beans which produce pretty much all at once. This type of bean was designed for all the beans to be mature at the same time so machines could pick them. The plant is shredded by the time the machine has picked the beans with tines. This method is still used. In the Willamette Valley, pole beans were grown by the acre in the 1960s. After that time, bush beans and mechanical pickers were the norm instead of pole beans and kids picking in the summers. I was one of the kids picking into a huge burlap bag and then dragging it to the weigh in lady. (On muddy days I picked more weight in "beans".)

Our first purple carrots. They remind me of royalty. I am going to try something new to me this summer. I will slice a few of these very thin, dehydrate them and then put them in soups and stews this winter. Sounds grand, right?

A variety of eggplant. Long ones and short ones.

There are even yellow eggplant.

White patty pan and yellow crookneck summer squash. Summer squash have thin skins and don't store well like the winter squash with thicker skins for storage do.

Two varieties of yellow crookneck summer squash. Some are smooth, some have lots of "warts". Our household loves them sliced about 1/2" thick, dredged through flour with garlic salt and then fried in olive oil. Or butter if you are feeling decadent. Cook until browned, nothing better.

The tall items are bulb fennel. They were going to seed out in the field so we pulled them all today. All parts of the bulb fennel are edible.

This was our Mom's truck. She loved putting quaint things in her gardens. It is a wonderful watermelon holder, too.

Not all slicing cucumbers make it into our harvest boxes. Even though these are scarred on the outside, the inside is still fine.

This little critter, the cucumber beetle, causes the scarring on the skin of the cucumber. (Photo from Google.)

Dad's golf cart is good for hauling all sorts of heavy items. It's not just a climbing toy for all the kiddos.

Poblano chili peppers growing. When they are dried they are called ancho chilis.

These Hungarian Yellow Wax peppers point upward and distinguish themselves from the Sweet Banana peppers that grow pointing downward. They look the same in a box. These are hot (to me anyway).

One of our 7 cherry tomatoes. These appear more yellow than they are in real life. Their name is Snowberry. The red plastic mulch reflects sunlight up onto the underneath side of the leaves and is supposed to increase production, help keep weeds down and keep soil moisture even. Tomatoes do best when their soil moisture doesn't fluctuate. After fruit is set, decrease water a tad for best flavor.

Another cherry tomato, Sweet Million.

My friends, Chris on the left and Allison on the right are picking tomatoes. Florencio puts the cherry tomatoes up on stakes as it makes them easier to see and pick.

A second planting of carrots is coming along nicely.

Here are the Sweet Banana peppers in their downward growing pose.

Large red Cayenne peppers. I copied this blurb from Burpee: Very hot fruits. Great for drying.

This is one big, hot red cayenne pepper. The fruits grow to 5" long and ½" thick and are often curled and twisted. It's easily dried for winter use. CAUTION: Use rubber gloves, or clean hot peppers under running water, to avoid skin burn from the pepper juice.

Jalapeno peppers. They all start out green, change to black, then eventually to red.

Yellow mini-bell peppers. This one pepper plant is loaded!

Lisa cutting the blue salvia.

A variety of cherry tomatoes. The left ones with the look of a marble are "Isis Candy" and most have a star shaped light section on their blossom end. The dark mahogany colored ones are "Chocolate Cherry". They are good, too but NO they don't taste like chocolate. Sorry.

The orange ones on the left are Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes. The light yellow ones are Snowberry.

Top left are yellow pear tomatoes, one of my favorites. Bottom left are Principe Borghese, slightly oblong and are an excellent drying tomato. The right side red ones with green shoulders are probably Stupice, an early medium sized variety out of Czechoslovakia.

Love all the vegetables in today's pasta salad. Cherry tomatoes, zucchini, yellow crookneck squash and other plates have cucumbers.

A new addition to our lunch repertoire, plum upside down cake. It was amazing.

A bowl of cantaloupe and honeydew from the garden. There have only been a few honeydew to ripen.

The melons were very sweet. Warm from the garden, too. Just the way I like them! Any yes, this is my plate. So great to be treated to a wonderful lunch.

Lunchtime under the trees. We had one rain shower today, right at lunch time. The green table cloth is covering the produce on the table behind the ladies. We heard thunder right over us and then saw a flash of lightening. And yes, we were sitting under the largest and oldest tree around! The black walnut is just out of the picture to the left. All is well.

I couldn't decide which mixed cherry tomato photo I liked best.
Here is number 1. (This may be my fav.)

Number 2.

Bill divides up the green beans.

Proof that Angie picked the Triple Crowns. They are enormous!

Out in the tomato patch. "Hey Chris!"
"Whhhaaattt?" She gets close to her work and rarely looks up :) And she is good about staying out of the sun.

Angie picking the Hungarian Yellow Wax. Notice the majority of them are pointing upward.
(Angie slathers on the sunscreen, no worries!)

The yellowish-green round tomatoes are called "Granny Smith". They are very pretty on a pizza and have a tang to them with a solid meaty center. The ones with purple shoulders are "Indigo Apple". They are bred at Oregon State University. The purple has anthocyanins like blueberries and also lycopene like other red tomatoes. A double whammy of healthy antioxidants. And last but not least, the yellow and green striped one is called "Green Zebra" and if it gets too yellow it will become mushy. These all taste wonderful. Can you tell I am a tomato fan?

San Marzano oblong paste tomatoes.

A box of peppers. Large green bell peppers and light green Cubanelle peppers. With a few HOT Serranos and chilis tossed in.

Allison and Chris STILL picking cherry tomatoes. Thanks ladies!

My niece Anna in orange (Go BEAVS) and her buddy Brea sitting while they pick the other field tomatoes. In places there are so many tomatoes it pays to sit a spell.

Chris finally stood up. Remember she gets into her picking and doesn't look up for long periods of time.
The Love Lies Bleeding flowers in the foreground. Then the next blue-green row is an up and coming planting of cabbage.

A happy face that grew on its own, a volunteer. We are hard pressed to pull up plants that have reseeded from last year. As a result tomatillos grow everywhere at the farm.

A fun purple carrot among the peppers.

Hungarian Wax peppers.

Sweet cayenne peppers.

Cubanelle peppers. Very crisp and juicy.

"Orange You Sweet" peppers.

Mini Bells of all colors.

"Chablis" mini bells.

Serrano peppers with a few red jalapenos. A hot mix!

Italian plums. These were in the upside down cake. Yummy!

Cherry tomatoes and the large crinkly ones are "Costoluto Genovese". An Italian type tomato.

Chris' lovely hands after picking tomatoes... forever. She went to see what else was in the garden, picked the berries right in to her shirt, can you tell? Then came in and put them into boxes. Oh Chris!

Basil in the greenhouse before it is picked.

Our basil grows in this raised bed Dad put up on bricks in the greenhouse many years ago. This bed's original purpose was for roses and carnations he would coax into bloom in the winter. He did this to be able to put some of Mom's favorite flowers on her grave in the wintertime. Sniff. They were married 56 years when Mom passed ten years ago.

People have been asking me to name things so they know what is what. Flower names in the bouquets, coming up!

A dinner plate dahlia. They are so heavy and the stems are rarely long enough they usually don't make it into our harvest box bouquets. We still enjoy them and they DO make it into my bouquets.

Snapdragons galore. They remind me of happy times playing with their little "faces" and pretending they talk. If you don't know about this and snapdragons, ask us next time you are at the farm.

Dark red dahlias, lime green and rosy pink zinnias, and green Bells of Ireland.

Firework type dark pink asters with shorter petaled pink asters tucked under the left side, blue statice mixed in with pink zinnias and spires of blue salvia.

There is even a rose or two in there!

Pale blue delphinium, golden yarrow, happy sunflowers, "Heavenly Blue" statice.

White snapdragons, blue salvia, pale yellow zinnias.

Deep red roses, blue salvia, red zinnias.

White asters, green Bells of Ireland, pink zinnias.

Yellow "Teddy Bear" sunflowers, "Midnight Blue" statice, golden zinnias.

Tall blue salvia, white asters, orange zinnias. Two types of orange zinnias, one is a cactus type, the other is a regular type zinnia.

Purple spires of liatris or "Gay Feather", "Teddy Bear" sunflowers.

Zinnias hydrating in fresh buckets of water. They are waiting to be selected by Lisa to add beauty to her bouquets.

A button like aster. Much smaller than the ones that look like fireworks in the background. Two different varieties.

Tall pink yarrow, light pink roses, pink with yellow centers asters and pink zinnias.

This little nosegay in the green glass is full of asters whose stems were too short for a bouquet. We think they are adorable anyway!

Blue salvia, pink zinnias, pink asters, and reddish snapdragons to the right.

Two different sunflower faces. Did they make you smile?

At the end of the day Anna and her cherubs, along with their puppy, have a moment of fun on Grandpa's golf cart. Enjoy. #1.

# 2. Where'd one of them go? Only her foot is showing!
She is fine :)

#3. All is calm, my great nephew loves to climb.

#4. Anna, "I'm listening." So is the puppy.

#5. Smooches all around. Good times!

Lisa and I went on a "walk about" to check on things in the garden and orchard. Things are much earlier than in years' past. A glimpse of what we saw.

A few "Atlantic Giant" pumpkins for the kiddos.

"Cinderella" pumpkins. They look like her coach.

"Lumina" white pumpkins.

Two Cinderella pumpkins growing next to each other.

A regular "normal" type pumpkin. They start out green and mature to orange.

Golden acorn squash.

Crown of Thorns ornamental gourd.

"Baby Boo" little pumpkins.

A striped little pumpkin.

A Crown of Thorns from the blossom's viewpoint. This also shows its size in Lisa's hand.

This one looks like a ghost!

More ornamental gourds. So adorable with their green ends.

Another variety of winter squash. This one is called "Festival".

A small "Warted" gourd. Pretty cool.

And right next to all the pumpkins and gourds is another row of flowers. Pretty purple zinnia.

This rather large pumpkin has been scratched by its own stem as it grows.

Turban Squash. Can you tell we love all these decorative squash? Most of them are edible, too.

Notice the powdery look to the leaves? Powdery mildew. We are hoping it doesn't hamper growth. Many of the summer and winter squash plants are susceptible to this. Usually overhead watering encourages powdery mildew. We only water with the drip tape underneath to try to prevent it. It must have rained and been warm enough to encourage it. :(

The persimmon tree has just a few fruits on it this year. They will turn orange later in the fall. Last year it was in October, who knows this year as things are maturing so early.

Then Lisa and I walked through the grapes. They should be ready soon, depending on the weather.

We have many different colors and tastes. Some are seedless, some have seeds. We don't know the names of any of them. These are delicious and a few were ripe. We taste tested many grapes today.