Homegrown Produce  

Overall I think we have had better vegetable yields in previous years.  On the other hand, Mike and I do not need a lot of produce.  Besides, the church now has a community garden and we have been getting a lot of fresh produce from there.

Tomatoes

The tomatoes plants are struggling.  We have a lot of brown leaves.  The community garden head gardener told Mike that it is lack of calcium.  I have added an emergence infusion of calcium (powdered milk, baking soda and epson salts) per her instructions but I am not sure they can be saved.  In the meantime the existing tomatoes are ripening.  So far I have been able to make one batch of tomato jam and two white bean caprese salads.

Eggplant

My eggplants were doing fantastic until we decided that maybe we were overwatering the plants.  So we cut back on the watering and the eggplants went into a decline.  I should have enough eggplants though to make some eggplant hummus.  

Zucchini

I have always had great success with zucchini except for this year.  So far I have gotten only 6 zucchini.  Fortunately, the lack of zucchini is not going to be a problem as the church has a lot.  I will be making at least two batches of chocolate chip zucchini bread tomorrow.  About half of the zucchini will be from my garden.  

Watermelon

This year I threw a watermelon plant in the same four by eight foot raised bed as the one zucchini plant.  You can no longer see the bed.  The watermelon plant has taken over.  Mike and I have counted six watermelon so far.  The only problem is that I do not know how to tell if they are ripe.  I'd better figure it out though because the church lunch program has ended and my chickens may go on watermelon withdrawal unless I can come up with another source of watermelon rinds.  

Raspberries

My brand new raspberry bush has raspberries growing on it.  I love raspberries.  As soon as I took this picture I ate all the red ones right off the vine.  There were only four.  I hope I get some more.