Repreive from the Heat

We have been having some rain and a reprieve from the heat.  It hasn't been much help to the garden, though.  Tomatoes have stopped ripening and just hang on the vine.  At least the ones that escape the birds, voles and rabbits.  I guess water has been hard to come by for everything.

Last week I weeded the strawberries, crabgrass was taking over.  They rewarded me by setting blossoms and fruit.  Looks like we may get a dozen more berries.  The green beans are coming out today and the bed will be prepped for a new crop.  Maybe turnips.

The okra, which had been thriving in the dry heat is now slowing up and spending more time setting blossoms.  More to look forward to.

I have been baking - made an anniversary cake for my neighbor and a practice cake for my nephews wedding in October.

My neighbor and his wife grow roses and daylilies around their house.  This was their 56th anniversary.

This will become a multi-tier birch sweetheart tree with autumn leaves accenting it.  Not perfect but at least in the right direction.  These are both 6" cakes, which is a perfect size considering how dense and rich they are.  the garden cake was a devils food pound cake with a filling of chocolate fudge, iced in vanilla buttercream lightly scented with orange.  The birch log is vanilla bean sour cream pound cake with a sour cherry filling, vanilla buttercream.  Each cake will make 12 generous slices.

Where did my garden go?

 Over a month of temperatures in the 90's and no rain to amount to anything and my poor garden is a parched wasteland. 

The jalapenos did produce like mad until the past week.  I managed to make 8 half pints of jalapeno jelly and 5 half pints of pepper relish from the production of just four plants stuck in a bag of composted manure.

The tomatoes came on strong then the fruit got smaller and smaller.  I still have green tomatoes on the plants but they are about golf ball size.  And the plants are drying out.  All told we only canned 4 pints of salsa.

This flower is the one of the best reasons to grow okra.

 The okra is about 4 feet high and if I don't check everyday we find one the size of a banana.  We pickled two pints of okra, which is selling in the store for almost $5.  And the seed was saved from last year.  So I have no investment in the okra other than space and it has given me both gorgeous plants, lovely flowers and lots of tasty little green pods which we have steamed, stewed, fried and sauteed.

Another lovely okra blossom

 Among the tomatoes that I had started from seed was a cucumber plant.  The seed just hitchhiked in when I was setting out the little seedlings.  This plant has managed to get into everything and produce nothing until last week.  We found an almost perfect 6" cucumber lurking under the base. 

I had done 4 successive green bean plantings.  The first and second produced well. The third and fourth were flops.  The first planting is still setting beans but the dry weather hasn't been doing them any favors.

I lost all my squash and the majority of my cucumbers to squash bugs and blight.  The squash bugs were fierce this year.

The Swiss chard is puny but still going.  Hopefully we can cut that into the frost.

The sneaky cucumber

Tonight I am cooking pinto beans and cornbread, a recipe I got from Ree Drummond's website  Pioneer Woman.  She will have her own show on Food Network starting this weekend!