Looking ahead

Growing produce throughout the summer and fall requires a good bit of planning. We have to have crops that are maturing throughout the end of August and through September since the tomatoes will only last so long (I'm sorry to say...). So we've got a few pictures of crops that are just beginning to come into production. First off we've got a planting of swiss chard that we are just beginning to harvest off of.


We like to do multiple plantings of chard since the first leaves that are harvested are the most tasty and best looking. We've also got some sweet corn that will hopefully be ready in a couple of weeks.


Almost all of the signs for local sweet corn have come down (it has been so dry here that unless you are irrigating your corn as we are it is pretty much impossible to have sweet corn at this time), but we should have some soon. Elsewhere these yellow wax beans are just coming on.


We had some of these in a pasta salad last night and they were really tasty! Of course Evan didn't wait until we got them in the house and cooked to try them.


Emily also takes into account the changing seasons when planning her flowers. These amaranth are much more popular after there have been a couple of cool nights to get people thinking about fall colors.


At the same time sunflowers are always popular and we especially like these fuzzy looking sunflowers which we've grown for the first time this year.


An unexpected benefit of this type of sunflower is the fact that the bugs don't seem to like it as much as they like all the other sunflowers.