Golden harvest

The temperatures finally feel like summer, and our vegetables started to grow much faster than before. We didn't go to the garden for a couple of days as we were travelling and when I came there yesterday in the morning I was nicely surprised. When I go to the garden twice a day I don't notice any changes, but a couple of days away and it's almost like a different place.

I spent almost two hours in the garden as I started harvesting, then watered the tomatoes and peppers, removed some weeds and infected leaves on the tomatoes. Later, I have also chatted with one of our neighbours. Time flies when you're in the garden!

When I see my basket I see several dishes that I'm going to make. Eggplants and zucchini will go in the Sicilian Caponata, peppers will be stuffed and baked in the oven with tomato sauce, green beans will be grilled with garlic and served with a toast, kohlrabi shredded with carrot to make some fresh summer salad, and some of the zucchinis will be grilled and rolled with my homemade pesto.

Let's have a look around the garden...

I am so happy to see so many peppers as my family will be coming next week and my brother is obsessed with them.

I have harvested from the plants that had multiple peppers to support the new growth. I have noticed that new flowers tend to go yellow, so I assume that the plants didn't have enough energy to support all the big ones as well as the new growth. Let's see how it will go after the harvest.

This pepper is noticeably darker than the other ones, and it's because this is another variety that will turn red later on.

They are not as big as the ones from the shop, but they taste so much better.

There are so many tomatoes, and I can see that the early blight had slowed down, so daily removing of the leaves have helped. It looks like we will have a great harvest soon. If all goes well, these will become black.

I remember when these heirloom tomatoes were just tiny babies, and today they are bigger than my fist. I already see them on a grill. Yum!

These will be the most traditional red tomatoes that I will turn into passata...

Some of them are changing their colour already...

In the past, I planted the basil out of the seeds and it never grew so strong. This year I bought tiny established seedlings and I kept harvesting and harvesting, and the plants keep growing full and strong.

My patty pan is progressing, and I couldn't be happier as it's one of my favourite vegetables. My mom used to prepare it covered with bread crumbs and fried, but there are so many healthy options that are maybe even more delicious. It will still take some time until I get my own patty pans, but luckily I have an amazing neighbour who gives me one anytime I need it.

Do you remember my struggle with beans? This batch works very well, but it's not bush beans as mentioned on the package. It is pole beans which caused a bit of a struggle as we don't have large poles to support the plants. We put there the ones that we had and now we hope for the best.

If I would have known that these were pole beans I wouldn't have planted kale seedlings there, but it is what it is and I hope that the kale will be a bit competitive and fight for the place.

It looks like slugs found it, but the damage is not too bad, so I will just have to keep an eye on it.

Chillies are finally getting stronger and we're getting the first flowers, so if all goes well we will get some fruit here too. It's going to be much later last year, and I hope that the waiting will be worth it.

A couple of weeks ago I removed old snap peas plants and last week I planted some fennel in their place. Slugs loves fennel, so I placed the green rings around them, and so far it works. I can't wait for my fennel salad with orange slices.

This cucumber is living its best life. You might say that it looks strange which it does, but this is the power of nature. And as you can see the plant started yellowing, so I guess it won't bear any more cucumbers. It's been a sad season in terms of cucumbers for us.

It was not the best decision to leave this cucumber on the vine for so long. We tried it yesterday and it was so bitter.

At first I thought that it had a nice size, but those yellow spots are signalling that it was too old. Every day is a school day.

Zucchinis keep growing and growing...

My first successful eggplant...

To be honest, I didn't know for sure if it was ready yet, but the size was good, so I harvested it as I didn't want it to become too old. When it's too old it basically changed into skin with seeds inside.

So pretty!

I have four cauliflowers plants, and so far it looks like I will only have one cauliflower out of them. But I'm not giving up the hope yet.

Another handful of beans which is so surprising. The plants are about 15 cm tall and they keep producing. It's not much, but it's still much more than I expected.

Chives goes in almost every single dish in summer...

I thought that my basked was full, but then I added some Swiss chard for lunch, chives and lot of basil for pesto. It looks like we have enough food for the whole week. I love summer!

If all goes well I will show you some potatoes next time 😊

Happy gardening and see you next time!