We’re heading full speed into harvest. These are the types of posts that bore me to write. There’s really nothing new happening, just more and more stuff picked from the garden, and it’s almost always the same every week. Of course, it’s not boring to actually pick it and eat it, but I won’t always have a new exciting thing to talk about.

So what’s new this week?

Our neighbor brought back a few raspberry and blackberry starts from his parents’ house in Alpine, UT. They are not the same variety of blackberries that we had before, so I’m excited to see how they turn out (if they live). The blackberries are looking pretty good, but the raspberries are having a harder time so far.

We’ve started picking tons of zucchini. I’m sure we picked at least 10 last week, and it looks like we’ll have even more this week. The crookneck yellow squash is starting to come on, so it won’t be just a game of peppers and zucchini anymore.

Pumpkins are also starting to pop up under the leaves of the squash plants, and that’s always fun.

Although I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen, we have finally moved from Spring into Summer. It was an exceptionally cold spring, and so far it’s an exceptionally cool summer. It’s the middle of July and I’m not sure we’ve hit 90 degrees yet. Many years we’re above 100 by now.

We went out of town for the past two weekends to drive up around the Olympic Peninsula and then ride our bikes from Seattle to Portland. It was nice a sunny in the northwest, but the neighbors tell me it rained here almost every day. It seems the garden really liked all that extra water. I almost didn’t recognize it when we got back. Everything is looking really good now, even the peppers.

We picked the rest of the peas, though most were way overripe, hard, and woody. We also started digging up potatoes. Charmaine has had fresh potatoes for dinner almost every night since we’ve been home from Seattle. We’ve even been able to start picking peppers. So far just banana peppers, but it looks like it’s going to be a good year for peppers.

Really the only thing still lacking is beans. I don’t know what it is, but they just don’t want to grow this year. They have finally sprouted, but they seem to be way behind. Maybe it’s the lack of hot days? We may never know.