Baby Veggies in the Rain

We've had west-coast like rain over the last week and our rain barrel is really full. That's great, but the sea of mud that is my garden is really slowing me down. I have so many baby veggies I want to visit and love up, but I can't really get to them.

The first one I am really excited about is our little cauliflower. I have never grown cauliflower before and am not sure how this will turn out. Greta says she has tried broccoli and it turned out small and bitter. That's the most likely outcome for prairie gardeners. I have them up against the greenhouse window and am watering them copiously to try to give them the best chance. My broccoli seems to be following Greta's prediction - so far it isn't doing much. We have 5 cauliflowers and they have all set heads. At this point, they are tennis ball sized. I haven't folded the leaves and tied them over because this is supposed to be a variety that doesn't need that. We'll see.

We also have baby pumpkins - some are even golf ball size at this point.
I told Mike we'd get none, but he thinks there will be lots.

I've read that to get giant pumpkins you are supposed to take the other baby pumpkins off the vines. I wonder if we should cut off the other pumpkins on one vine to see if that will get us a pumpkin. On the other hand, all that space for one pumpkin seems ridiculous.

We are currently eating zucchini, strawberries, greens, spices etc. and will have peas as soon as we have a warm day. I've eaten a couple of pods already and they were so good. Our sugar snaps are a couple of weeks behind yet.

We have already harvested 3 zucchini and given one to James and Jaime. Hopefully Anna and Ian will want some soon and I know I can freeze some.

We are also trying edamame beans for the first time this year. We have six plans in the greenhouse and some on our south trellis in the square foot beads. The pods are doing well and I think we'll be eating them soon as well. Our tomatoes in the greenhouse and in the south boxes already have large fruits and the romas are doing well in the main garden bed. Peppers are all flowering as well and we have a number of baby peppers.

Our big excitement is our spaghetti squash. They are getting so large that we had to make our first cradle for one the other day. A cradle is a nylon or mesh support attached to the netting to prevent there from being to much weight on the stem. I'll be sure to take a picture of the cradle and post it soon.

Mike and I have had some interesting conversations lately about the value of all this fresh gardening and how few people is western society actually eat really fresh vegetables. I think they are so much better that even farmer's market veggies and they are way better than the supermarket. It's clearly great that they are organic and that they are more nutritious if eaten directly after picking. However, it's the taste that keeps me gardening.