Dahlia

In addition to our mastery of fruit and vegetable husbandry, we are expert flower growers (cue term for that). Hah. Hardly. Actually, the people who lived in our house before us were flower people par excellence. In addition to all the roses that we knew about, there are tons of various flowers blooming all the time around here. Dahlia, we don't know ye well, but oh do we love thy sexy purple flowers. Baby.

Potato Detective

The Potato Detective, no relation to Cakespy, has come across a nefarious case of rotten homegrown potato. This is the first one we've encountered, so it's not quite time to cry outbreak, but this is nonetheless disheartening. We don't know what this defection is, but we do know that we will serve no unhealthy potato, homegrown or not. We will hunt you down where you live. We will follow you to the gates-- okay, enough already. We all know who the staff of the wine wall is voting for. That's company policy.

Candy-Striped Beets

Perhaps the defining characteristic of the chiogga beet is that the interior of the beet is candy-striped. Quite striking to look at and fun to eat, though they are absolutely the same as a red or a yellow beet in terms of flavor and such. Party! As to why some of our beets are mostly white, I have no earthly idea. They still taste the same.

Tomato Envy

These belong to a fellow P-Patch gardener. They are about the size of baseballs. Then again, since fall has already arrived in Seattle, who knows if they will all ripen?

Tomatoes, Tomatillos

This basket is representative of our tomato and tomatillo harvests this year. We started out early in the spring with countless seed varieties-- heirlooms, romas, cherries-- but due to our own negligence and the turmoil of moving into our house, what we ended up with is three tomatillo plants and three cherry tomato plants. I'd like to say the red tomatoes are wonderful, the best we've ever tasted, the Reason We Garden, but they are okay. Once you get them in a salad they taste more like the vinegar they are dressed with then the tomatoes themselves. Oh well. There's always next year.

Good Output from the Allium Family

We picked these on Sunday. Two Italian heirloom varieties of onion, Yellow of Parma and Red Florence, and Blue de Solaize leeks, a French heirloom variety. Not bad!

Why We Garden

It's moments like these when we get to pluck ripe figs from the tree and eat them without washing them. Now we could engage in hyperbole about how great these figs are and how much better they are than purchased figs, but it just wouldn't be true. They are just good sweet figs. We could also think of millions of things to do with these figs, but for right now we just want to eat them as is. We don't want to do more to them, but less.

Alas, too late

This was why we bought the house. "Oh look," we said, as our realtor struggled to open the door, "they have an artichoke plant." Before we'd even crossed the threshold, we were in love. All summer we waited, patiently, for our time. And then it came. Two perfect artichokes waiting to be plucked. But we wavered. "Not tonight," we said. Perhaps when there's company, we'll steam them, dip the leaves in aioli, and scrape their newly-garlickly flesh across our teeth, share the bottoms and the hearts. "Too much work," we said. There's furniture to arrange and weeds to pull and new house and garden chores aplenty. But every day our artichokes opened, just ever so slighlty more, to the sun and reproduction. And now, look at them, ruined and gorgeous, exploding in purple fertility.

Abundance

Our apple trees are amazing. We won't even know what do with them all. So soon they will all be falling off the tree ripe and we will need a plan. Any ideas?