Week 16

Brooks prunes. These are such a delight. The trees are loaded this year, not so every year. We are feeling lucky!

Our earliest Asian pears.

A slightly tougher skinned Asian pear. Ripens a little later. So very crunchy.

Slicing cucumbers from the field.

Two varieties of yellow crookneck squash. One is bumpy, one is smooth. These are from our second planting of summer squash.

Very young and tender skinned summer squash. The zucchini are showing dust from our neighbor's field work.

Grams and Other Mary have a little helper this morning.

Anna and Scott "clean" the kohlrabi. They are taking off the extra leaves while their pup looks on.

My great niece who lives at the farm just returned from her first day of kindergarten. Looking pretty spiffy!

Loving her new backpack. Sweet girl :)

A large collection of grapes.

Bagged grapes. We try to package them so they don't squish each other in their sacks in the harvest boxes.

Red noodle beans. These are pretty strange looking. They do hold their color when cooked.

Green beans waiting to be bagged.

Red jalapenos. 

Hungarian wax peppers. These are hot to me.

A smaller slicing cucumber with a few lemon cucumbers.

Tasty yellow and red mini bells along side green bells.

One of our favorites here at the farm. Fried yellow crookneck squash. Slice, toss in flour and garlic salt and fry in olive oil or butter. The best.

Zucchini "noodles" are tossed in olive oil and lightly sauteed. 

Today's vegetable salad. So tasty. 

Pickled red onions in vinegar and oil. Crunchy and tasty.

Pumpkin cookies with wonderful pumpkin frosting. 

What a treat. Lunch is always a variety of fresh vegetables in new and delicious ways. 

Lisa on the left, Anna on the right. Eating  lunch with the cherry tomatoes.

Bill, Faith and Mary (just joining us at the farm after her back surgery a few weeks ago, notice her brace) enjoying their lunches.

Anna made just a few cookies for us. Mmmm.

Orange and yellow carrots. They are very crisp. I particularly think the yellow ones are sweet.

Today's tomato collection awaits bagging.

Parsley is bright green and vibrant today.
It smells really good, too.

Blue salvia in the front, blue and white spires of veronica toward the back. A few light blue and white pincushion flowers, too.

Another view, Lisa and I love blue flowers. There aren't as many choices when trying to grow blue flowers. The only flower color harder to find is black. A black flower? Hmm.

A wide variety of carnations we grew from seed this past winter are starting to bloom. Usually perennials don't bloom until their second year. We are getting a fragrant bonus.

Purple dahlias and snapdragons with fountain grass.

Teddy Bear sunflowers with heavenly blue statice.

Different colored zinnias, pink asters and the very first Sweet William. We grew them from seed this past winter and they, too, are blooming early.

The last few blue delphinium with the different types of orange zinnias.

Blue statice with light yellow sunflowers.

Snapdragons give these orange zinnias a different look.

The table where Lisa is working. Many works in progress. 

Arching blue veronica with light colored zinnias and heavenly blue statice.

If you could only smell this cart full of flowers. Clove scented carnations are so sweet.

A few King apples off the big tree near the greenhouses.

Mary in the background and Faith nearby marvel at the size of these apples.

This is all for Week 16.
See you next week, Lorrie

Week 15

The sunflowers are starting to take off. All different kinds.

Different varieties of zinnias. Doubles, cactus styles and the every day regular ones.

Statice looks dried even when it isn't. Dark blue, light blue, yellow and white. Most have a white eye in them. They do dry beautifully and could be kept around all year.

More colors of zinnias, some are two toned.

And a few more zinnias on the right with Teddy Bear sunflowers to the left.

Brooks prunes are so delicious. Nothing like a fresh one of these.

A wooden truck load of cantaloupe and a few watermelon.

More Brooks prunes resting near boxes of Asian pears in the shade.

With their little bit of dirt I can tell these came from the field and not the greenhouse. Also these have some marks on them, likely from cucumber beetles.

A wondrous cart full of posies. Large dahlias, snapdragons, zinnias, deep rose colored asters, delphinium and more.

She is putting a few more yellow pear tomatoes in to the boxes. Sweet thing!

A person's view of carrots growing out in the field.

A shoe top view of the rows of carrots. So much frilly green shading the soil. 

Carrots on the cart after they have been newly dug and washed.

This one particular carrot appears to me like a pair of pants hanging on the clothes line or dancing legs :)

Peppers of all colors being bagged for the boxes, a few of each variety per box.

Colorful mini-bells.

Large green bells, some turning to their orange or yellow final color. Most peppers start out green and then mature to other colors. Sweetness comes with the mature color of the fruit.

Mary bagging tomatillos. Beans are next.

Green beans destined for bags.

A variety of sizes of tomatillos. Some are green, some yellow and a few are purple. 

The beginning of a scrumptious lunch. Melons from the garden. I don't think there is anything sweeter.

Lisa and Anna spoil us with the fixings for our own iced lattes.

Salted caramel apple bars. Oh my gosh. These were so ewwy goey good!

Sauteed veggie quesadillas. Soft peppers and onions inside were so tender and juicy, hmmm.

A table full of deliciousness. Oh, lemonade in the blue pitcher and water in the pretty white one. We are always conscious of hydrating enough.

I love my plateful of lunch. Oh my.

In the background, Faith is talking to Anna's youngest little one. Oh yes, my plate's appearance has changed. I didn't eat dessert first this Tuesday. That's how good the quesadillas were. 

Florencio brings in the cart full of tomatoes he had just picked.

Taking a peak at the pumpkin patch.

These large ones are the "Atlantic Giant" variety of pumpkin and can reach up to 600 lbs. if babied all summer and fed just so. We treated them like all the rest. They still are REALLY big!

The girls are eating "fresh from the field" raw corn while resting on the huge pumpkins.

Kale getting divided up and put into the boxes.

The gentle blending of cherry tomatoes.

Anna's littlest and Florencio's littlest share the holding of the friendly farm chicken.

We love this swirly large dahlia.

Bouquets in the process of being put together. 

Such a pretty pink and white bouquet. I am partial to pink.

These lovely white dahlias are new to us this year. Last fall Lisa and I traveled to Swan Island Dahlias in Canby and saw their fields in bloom. We picked out 18 new dahlias to add to our collection here at the farm. Good thing we did as last winter was colder for longer than most winters and almost all of our dahlias at the farm died. 

Faith laughs over the table of flowers.

Different hues of orange zinnias with purple lupine.

Carnations on the far side and Sweet William on this near side. This cart smells WONDERFUL!

I went home and made a corn salad with onions and cherry tomatoes. This was sooo delicious. I found the recipe on google. Basil added a nice touch, too. All from the farm.