Let the Harvest Begin

It's just past mid-summer and the harvest is beginning. Probably the most prolific vegetable at the moment is the purple pole bean. We have pounds of them. Fortunately, they make a good stir fry.

Zucchini is presenting its usual challenge: catch them when they are small, not the size of baseball bats. We've had mixed results. Fortunately zucchini fries are delicious. 

We've made sweet pickles, dill pickles, pickled banana peppers. 

We've harvested beets and a few sprigs of lettuce that managed to grow. The tomatoes are on point to begin.

At this point, we are contemplating our options. 

So far, we've always been able to eat what we grow (or give it away) without the need for canning. But our freezer is finite. Do we start canning? Is vacuum sealing enough to preserve the food until we can get to it? Do we need to buy a small chest freezer? 

I have taken this coming Monday off, in part to process some of the food we're producing.

As the tomatoes go from green to red, these questions may become more pressing.

Meanwhile, another thing that we've been dealing with is the lawn. Large parts of it have been overrun by creeping Charlie. The problem here is that creeping Charlie keeps the ground moist, which provides a great breeding ground for grubs which eventually transmogrify into Japanese beetles, which in turn plague the crops. 

So, foot by foot, I've been ripping out the weed, and then mowing the grass lower than I ordinarily would to dry things out. 

Rain has been almost perfect this year. About an inch a week. Some of it comes in storms, which are stronger than we'd like, and lashing winds have broken off two of our sunflowers. But for the most part, the growing season has been ideal.

The next step, after reclaiming the grass and clover from the creeping Charlie, will be to deploy another grand army of nematodes. 

I've learned that using these can take a few years to really eliminate the vile, pale grubs munching on the grass roots and the beetles chewing up all of the leaves. I've also learned that there are nematode breeds that are especially effective against these particular grubs: Beneficial Nematodes Heterohabditis bacteriophora HB.

While it is, in fact, tempting to use some death chemical against these foul, invasive enemies, we won't do it. Our army of nematodes is our best defense. 

So far, so good.