The National Weather Service blew it last weekend and there was no frost. I picked most of the remaining tomatoes and made Swiss Tomato Pie for our Friday night group. I also made Kale Soup with about a pound of my Kale, but that hardly made a dent in it.

I’ll probably need to find a Thanksgiving Kale recipe.

i only got a couple of Patty pan Squash, and one Zucchini from the new plants. I’ll need to get the Fall crop in at least a couple of weeks earlier next year.

We had frost warnings this weekend so I picked all of the peppers and  the roma tomatoes in anticipation of the end. The end of the season tradition is to make stuffed peppers from the bounty of green peppers.

Natalie stuffed all of them and we had three meals , sent some to her mother and she had a lunch or two.

I picked the last of the cucumbers this weekend as the vines are pretty much dead. With the drought continuing, I just couldn’t keep enough water on them. Tha area along the fence needs to be built up as it is too wet in the Spring and needs a lot more organic matter in the soil as it is too dry in the summer. I probably wouldn’t be a good idea  to plant cucumbers there again. as I’ve done it there for 5 or 6 years.

We picked lots of hot Hungarian peppers, sliced and pickled them for Jared and Jeff — they each got a 1 qt. jar. The plants still look good. The tomatoes are bearing in full force, I probably need to skin and freeze some next weekend.

I got a few Patty Pan squash this weekend and the new crop of beans is ready for picking. the fall zucchini have some small ones. Everything is suffering from lack of water, so I put the sprinkler on for about 5 hours which produced over an inch on the rain gauge.

We had a couple of near frosts this week with night time temperatures in the mid-thirties, but no damage. I made Calabacitas <karneyfamilyrecipes.com> from the last couple of zucchini from the summer plants. I also roasted a bunch of the sweet Hungarian peppers for it and they were wonderful.

New crop of Roma Tomatoes ready to be oven dried.

I picked another large bunch of Roma Tomatoes today which I will oven roast and dehydrate. I will try freezing them which I am told works very well.

The Roma plants are small and bear very well. I think that they can be planted closer together next year. Probably three across the bed like the peppers and closer together, maybe two feet or less.

New Garden Bed – One month after planting.

The plantings that I put in at the end of July are about ready to go. My spring planted Zucchini is on it’s last leg, but not to worry, the new plants are blooming and have some tiny fruit on them. We’ll see how quickly they mature.

The Patty Pan squash should have edible fruit later this week. The beans are flowering and the Kale and chard could be a little further along. The butternut squash was probably planted way too late, and the location behind the barn was probably too dry and maybe not enough sun.

Everything probably could have gone in a week or so earlier, other than the butternut squash, which probably have been planted around the 4th of July. We’ll know definitely when the season is over.

My Basil is starting to yellow and look pretty sad, so I decided to do a little reading up on the culture of the crop. According to the articles, once the plant flowers, the Basil turns bitter and that’s the end of it. This makes sense as I never get to the buds quick enough, and the plant is flowering before I can pick them off.

I made Pesto last year and it was bitter, which I thought was due to the fact I used walnuts instead of pine nuts, which didn’t seem right. Now I know it was the Basil. I bought some potted Basil at Heinen’s, our new food store in town. I got three 8-inch pots for $1.99 each. Great price!

I made pesto with half new and half from my old plants and it turned out great.

The articles also recommended to add Basil to your cooking at the end. It holds it’s flavor better.

Next year, I’ll put a couple of plants in and then try succession plantings from seed.

I picked beans today. Probably should have done it two days ago. They are a little large, but fine. There were easily enough for 5 or 6 meals. There is a 7 ft. row of Roma Beans and a 7 ft. row of the other. So, I picked them 55 days after planting.

Next year, I should probably plant 8 ft. rows and stagger the planting every two weeks.

Heirloom tomato salad with roasted Roma tomatoes and cucumbers.

I got enough Heirloom Tomatoes to make a salad. A couple of Black Krims and one Cherokee Purple that should probably been left on the vine a couple more days, and a couple Lemon Boys.

I cut up the tomatoes and a cucumber and a bunch of basil. Dressed it with Olive Oil and Balsamic and some black pepper. Then I topped it with roasted Roma tomatoes. Delicious!

Don’t mess with this guy!

The drought continues, so in order to keep the garden flourishing, I need to water every other day or so. The garden is spread out in a haphazard manner with mostly raised beds. It’s tough to get good coverage with a sprinkler, so I water by hand which takes an hour or two.

I was watering under what is left of the pear tree. I’ve trimmed the tree as much as possible and will probably have it taken down in the fall, as it is shading parts of the garden, and I never get an pears anyway due to various animals and hornets and yellow jackets that attack the pears while still on the tree and then harass me when I walk through the garden.

Anyway, I was watering under the tree this evening and things started hitting me on the back. Finally, I got hit on the head with a pear. I looked up in the tree and evil squirrel was sitting there throwing pears at me. This has happened before.

Now, I bear no animosity toward the rodent, even though he (or she) has torn shingles off of my roof during nesting season, and made a hole in the shed, but then wisely decided that it was not a good place for a nest after shredding most of a roll of paper towels and stuffing them in the space above the door.

“Evil’ may be too strong a term to use for this furry creature. One would not call Disney’s Chip and Dale “Evil” no matter how much they tormented Donald Duck, so maybe a term like impish, mischievous, or other adjective that is less “dark” and slightly comic might be more apt.

After the pear on the head, I was tempted to set my watering nozzle to “Jet”, point the nozzle into the tree and give the little so-and-so a good soaking, but I remembered that squirrels can be very vindictive and usually have the last word.

I planted two more hills of Zucchini for a fall crop, as this one will probably succumb to borers by the end of August if not sooner. I also planted a couple of hills of Butternut squash, but I am probably way too late. In any case, it will help me set the planting date for winter squash for next year.

Almost all of the fall stuff I planted earlier this week is popping out of the ground already.

I also pulled up the onions that Mary gave me as they were doing nothing. I planted that whole cell of the herb garden with seed for bunching onions. I won’t thin them, and I’ll see if they will produce perpetually.

I fertilized the whole garden today with Miracle Grow.