Farmers Market

A mix of sadness and relief brings me to write my last FM post for the summer. We had our last FM on July 2. It was my third best day profit-wise. I also sold out of almost everything! I brought home a tray of tomatoes, but I had wanted to can some anyway, so it worked out well.

In the garden, not much has changed yet, except for our picking schedule. We pick every other day now, so some stuff does get overgrown. We either still eat the overgrown produce or we dump it in the compost pile. One great thing about FM ending is that now we get to eat a lot of what we pick. Before, I always felt like we should sell all of our great-looking produce and eat what's left over. Now, we get to eat the good stuff!

We have stopped watering the determinate tomatoes and we're picking the nice ones as they ripen. We've also stopped watering the cucumbers and hardly pick any unless we want to eat them. They had a hard time this year. I planted them late and then we didn't get any rain. It seemed as though we just couldn't water them enough to have nice-looking cucumbers. Maybe next year will bring rain and a little better luck! Slowly, we'll start pulling plants out. One variety of green beans has been pulled and the other two will follow shortly. The black-eyed peas and crowder peas are both almost finished and may come out soon as well. Okra loves hot weather, so we'll have an abundance of that for quite awhile, still. We're also keeping some squash and a couple of rows of indeterminate tomatoes for awhile longer. Watermellons did not make this year, but we do have a few small canteloupe. I just planted them all too late and they didn't get enough water.

This garden has been a learning process. I know what I would like to continue doing and what I will not do again. After planting so many varieties of tomatoes, I know which ones I would like to plant again, how many to plant, and which ones were just not up to par. I've had a good time with the garden and I don't mind what we have left, but now it's on to other things for us. We need to focus a little more on the house remodel and Travis finishing school and graduating in December. Besides, it's just to darn hot to be out there anyway!