Flowers. 8.1.21

Four O'clocks and poppies, all volunteer. Daylilies that I grew from my own hybridizing a few years back. And squashes, quite fragrant and honeybees love them.

Dahlias and Nasturtiums. Also more volunteer poppies. The nasturtiums are volunteer too. The dahlias are saved from last year.

Three Types of Slicing Tomato. Goliath, Russian Purple, and BrandyFred Dwarf. 8.1.2021

 Today I harvested the first of the big slicing tomatoes.

Dwarf BrandyFred.  I can't tell this from Brandywine.  Really super delicious.

Russian (or Ukranian) Purple. I don't know why they call these purple. More mauve-ish to my eyes.

Im not sure where to count a start date for these. Goliath had a setback due to baking in the wall-o-water. I'm estimating about May 1 although that is not perfect. If we use that date, each of these is 90 days. Early Goliath Hybrid.

Sweetcorn Progress Note. 8.1.2021

These are the variety "Ambrosia". I planted the seeds 5.23.21. They are starting to silk and tassle. The first ones that I planted, Sunglow and Trinity, are not quite ripe. I harvested two ears of Sunglow today, The kernels were small, but they were sweet and the flavor was very nice. Give them another week or two to fatten up.

Blackberries. 8.1.2021

These are the variety "Triple Crown". This is the only variety so far that works for me, produces reliably and well, is thornless, and the berries are delicious. Today I picked about 10 cups, enough for a big batch of blackberry jam.

Fig Harvest and Fig Jam. 7.30.2021

Both Lattarula and Desert King are bearing now. The fruits are quite similar. The fig with the dripping nectar is "Lattarula" or the Italian Honey Fig.

Since it's a lot of figs all at once, I made some jam. I followed the Sure-Jell forvlow sugar recipe. I think it gels a little too firm, but it's very tasty. I could see lowering the sugar level some more, but the recipe on the package insert says not to. I do love this jam. It's also quite pretty.