August Veggie Garden

It is hard to believe that August has come and gone.  Life gets so busy this time of year it seems.  There is hay to buy and stash in the barn and it seems that August is our busiest garden month, at least for harvesting and preserving.  As I think I mentioned before we tend to stick to the basics and this month tomatoes, peppers, beans and cucumbers were abundant.  Don was very diligent about succession planting this year so we have had a continuing supply of beans and cucumbers.  Despite the very dry weather this month we have probably had our best garden ever and attribute it to all the goat manure and mulch that we have been adding for a few years now.  One of the most prolific vegetables in our garden this year is peppers.  Some years our peppers sit in the cool clay soil and mock us until late in the season. We love sweet peppers, both the bell type and the long Italian type and prefer to let them ripen a bit so they develop more flavor.  We're freezing peppers, drying peppers and putting peppers in salsa.  They will make a great addition to our winter meals this year (and probably into subsequent years as well).

Wonderful yellow-striped heirloom tomato.

Old cucumber vines on the way out.  Never fear there are new ones starting to bear.

Second planting of white half runner pole beans.

Our okra was slow to come on but it is starting to bear now.

One of the tomato blights is starting to take its toll but later plantings are still doing well.

A day's harvest that needs to be put by.

Peppers loaded in the dehydrator.

A sampling of the fruits (and veggies) of our labor.