Friday, August 15, 2008

Mid-August

It's been raining on and off today and it's cool. What a relief. I get really tense when it's been dry and the garden begins to shrivel.

I sold four bushels of peaches between yesterday and today and used up all the appearance challenged fruit. I made a dozen fresh peach cakes today for tomorrow's farmers' market. Peach jam, peach pie filling and peach chutney are in jars in the basement. Diced peaches are in the freezer and there's some peach wine just beginning to ferment.

The last bushel of peaches was picked last night, as I dodged honey bees gorging on the ripest ones. Some of the fruit looked like bee balls, that's how many were busy in the trees. Since the honey bees were responsible for polinating the trees so competently, I think they deserve the fruit that is left.

Immediately, I found that the apples are ready to pick. I also found, to my amazement, some ripe purple grapes on a vine growing up the porch of the old house along with various plants and weeds. In the past ten years, I wasn't aware that there was a domesticated grapevine, let alone one capable of bearing such nice clusters of grapes.

Tomatoes are ripening with a little more alacrity -- especially the cherry tomatoes. Blackberries are almost done. Pole beans are still bearing and the newly planted ones have flowers already. Lovely types of basil are doing well. There are a couple of types of sweet basil, cinnamon basil, lime basil and one I haven't yet pinned down. It's definitely a different scent than any of the others.

It's a busy, busy time and I'm feeling tired.

1 comment:

Tom Atkins said...

I so enjoy reading your blog. It reminds me of summers on my grandfather's farm when I was young.