celebrating summer

I continue to be amazed by the bounty coming out of the fields these days. Seems like these days we are doing nothing but harvesting... and the produce is getting larger. And more colorful.

This purple cabbage was one of my little projects, started in soil blocks in the greenhouse. Farmer Dave usually doesn't grow the purple variety-- it seems to demand lots of space to grow if you want to get large heads out of it. Some of the heads got large, but some stayed small. Next year I will try spacing them farther apart.

And the onions are getting to the "lunker" stage. Farmer Dave grows several varieties-- these here are harvested for fresh onions, whereas other varieties are grown for storage onions, that will keep for a long time once they are cured.
We wash them up in the field & peel off the outer layers until they shine!
And speaking of shine...
Some of my favorite summer veggies are here-- eggplant & peppers!
This week's share is huge. People will really have to stretch their stomachs for this one. Four heads of lettuce! 3 Eggplants! 2 zucchini and 2 peppers! Giant beets! Cabbage, scallions, onion!
We could hardly fit them in the boxes that we packed for the city distribution.
The winter squash are quickly taking over their field. Which is a good thing-- they will provide a dense shade to prevent weeds from coming up.
Another of my little experiments was okra plants... the variety is "North and South", supposedly growing well up here in the Northeast. The plants are a lot shorter than I remember them being in California, but they sure are producing. Picking them small is the key-- once they get large they are tough to pick and tough to eat. But they get big really fast! I love to eat them raw. But I am also going to try breading and frying them, traditional-style.

Here's me harvesting a beautiful head of purple cabbage:And here's Nick, Johanna, Pam, & I with our first eggplant bounty!
Yesterday Nick & I transplanted 2 rows of lettuce & scallions... we seed lettuce in the greenhouse every week the whole summer so we have a steady supply. It doesn't all mature at a steady rate... sometimes it all is ready at once! (Like this week's distribution of 4 heads)The 3 Sisters Garden is looking beautiful too:

The corn is starting to tassel, the beans are looking to wind, and the squash is thinking about running. And there are sunflowers blooming & magenta amaranth leaves. What a magical place.