Summer Harvest

So many tomatoes!  It's exciting to harvest so many fruits from the garden, but also daunting to have so much food that needs attention.  I would feel overwhelmed if I weren't able to pass on all the ripe tomatoes to family members who like to preserve tomato juice in jars to enjoy through the winter.  I've enjoyed eating my fill of tomatoes and even freezing some sauce.  

The tomato patch was low maintenance and incredibly productive, but not incredibly easy to harvest from.  The plants grew into a lush tangle of leaves, and the cages could barely support the weight of the heavy fruits, so they are leaning on each other.  I've got some ideas for improvements for next year.  

Brandon and I completed the full two months of the elimination diet.  High five!  It was intense, to spend so much time and thought on food and food preparation, but it leaves us in a very good place, health wise.  We learned so much about how our bodies respond to different foods, we got into some good habits, we feel really good, and all our clothes are too big.  We had suspicions that eggs were a problem for Brandon, and unfortunately, the elimination diet confirmed it.  He can't eat eggs, and I have fourteen laying hens.  Sigh.  But, we get to share eggs with friends, and any eggs that get dirty shells get cracked into some dog food for Wendigo.  She loves eggs.   Lately, we always have a bowl of eggs sitting by the front door ready for the dogs.  The cats think it's weird.  

Our most productive summer crops, other than eggs and tomatoes, are the green beans.  Inside the garden fence, with zinnias and sunflowers, the beans have conquered the corn and wire trellises.  

The corn was planted so late and so thinly, I didn't anticipate them actually making ears.  They are lost in a tangle of beans, but the corn made corn!

I picked half the beans, and we ate beans until we were tired of them.  There's still plenty on the vine.  The lettuce, chard, and kale kept us in greens all spring and early summer.  The herbs I started from seed in the greenhouse are monster sized plants that have given us delicious dishes and salad dressings all summer long.  I have a pile of garlic drying in the barn, and sweet potatoes still growing in the ground.  The apple tree is covered in tiny spotted apples, and even the old pear tree in the front yard has a load of pears that will be ready to pick soon.  It's funny that when I list all the foods we grew this year, it sounds like a lot, but when I look at my weedy garden I don't always see the food past the weeds!