Dad's Garden, Part 10

Dad's garden is transitioning into fall.  

The bright, vibrant greens have been replaced with dustier greens, golds, and orange.

As the tomatoes fade away the marigolds that helped keep them 

healthy over the summer have come into their glory.  

 They are easily the bright spot in the garden.  

The okra plants stand at attention but their lush, fuzzy foliage has fallen away.

 The summer veggies are being replaced with the cool weather loving plants.

Dad's leaf lettuce is delicate and vibrant green 

and surprisingly hardy.  

Dad's greens mix is wonderful.  

He plants turnip greens, mustard greens, tender greens, and kale together.  

Yummy combination.

The last planting of the lima beans is still producing but probably 

won't last the first hard frost.

The sweet potatoes have been dug and are aging on the porch.  

Just waiting for some butter and cinnamon.  

The fall garden isn't the flashiest time of the year, 

but the produce that comes out of it is warming comfort food.  

Give me a dinner with a sweet potato, greens, and a hot piece of cornbread any day!

Seriously good eating!

Dad's Garden, Part 9

We have officially entered the stage of summer gardening that I like to call "The Crunchy Stage".  

Most plants are past their peak and the heat is making these plants work really hard to produce.

The tomatoes have been busy making really tasty fruit.  The tomatoes start blooming at the base of the plant and progress up the plant until it runs out of vine. 

This vine has bloomed all the way out to the tip of the plant.  The tomatoes are weighing down the end of the vine.  

The one plant in the garden that seems to really enjoy the sun is the okra.

Just when the rest of the garden seems to be looking at bit tired, the okra comes on strong. 

I mean - look at it!  If you look you can see that there are pods growing all the way up the trunk at every space available.

Dad has some pods selected to mature and dry out on the plant.  These pods will provide the seeds to start the plants for next year.  

I am the Bubba Blue* of okra.  I love it!  How do I like okra?  Well...I like

fried okra

boiled okra

pickled okra

roasted okra

okra and tomatoes

okra gumbo

Mmmmm.  I have a bag of okra in the refrigerator that I brought home from Mom and Dad's.  I need to clean it and make something yummy with it.  

(*of Forrest Gump fame)

Figs!

One of the nicest things about our nasty hot summers is figs.

Dad gave me a fig tree start from his trees many years ago.

It produces the nicest sweet figs.

They just started ripening this last week. 

 I am getting a double handful every couple of days.  

That is just about the right rate for snacking - since I am the only one in 

my family who likes them.  

I don't mind though - more for me!

Dad's Garden, Part 8

Dad's garden is about the only thing that is enjoying all of this heat 

we have been experiencing lately.

Everything is looking good.  The cooler weather veggies are now long gone.  

The heat-loving veggies are in their prime.

The muscadines are starting to blush.

The tomatoes are peaking now - they are loving all of the heat.

I mean, look at this plant.  It is loaded with fruit!

Dad has a knack with growing tomatoes.

From seed to harvesting seed for next year he has this whole routine down to a 

proven process that just doesn't fail.  

I know that one year he kept up with the poundage of tomatoes that he was taking to church - 

that year what he took exceeded 1500 pounds!  

That's a whole lot of spaghetti sauce!

Dad has staggered his lima bean plantings so that they don't all come in at once.

Red lima or green limas - they are all delicious!

Dad's fig bush is loaded up!  

When these figs actually start to ripen they are going to have a bumper crop.

BLT

Crusty whole wheat bread.

Crunchy Romaine lettuce.

Bacon ('nuf said!)

Mayo and fresh cracked pepper.

Dad's tomatoes.

Perfection.

Dad's Garden, Post 8

Dad's garden is in full swing.

He is beginning to take veggies to church in large quantities.

My father's garden efforts actually increase the attendance on 

Sunday and Wednesday nights during growing season..

Folks know that he will be showing up with veggies free for the taking.

Mom is just glad to not having to deal with all of the produce he is producing.

Here are some of the white onions that he has pulled.

Mild and sweet.  Yum.

The blueberries are starting to slow down a bit.

It has been a great blueberry year.  

I came home with a jar of Dad's blueberry syrup!

Squash coming in by the basket full.

These tomatoes are not beautiful but they will be very tasty. 

A rogue thunderstorm with hail dinged the tender tomatoes just before 

they were ready to start turning red.  

Subsequent tomatoes will be gorgeous!

I love how the onions drying on the garden fence look.  

Very neat and orderly.

The red ones are especially pretty.

The broccoli is done for the year.

It was delicious while it lasted.

The red limas are busy producing their pretty red lima beans.

The tomato plants are loaded down.

I mean - look at this plant! 

The okra plants have grown 2 feet since I last snapped a pic of them.  

They are putting on little okra now and Dad will be harvesting those 

lovely pale green pods very soon.

The green limas are getting well established now. 

They will be peaking about the time the red limas are finishing up.

Dad is letting the Grandma Parham green beans mature on the vine now.

He will harvest them when the pods dry up. 

They make great dry beans.

The muscadines are getting fatter and will be sweetening up soon.

The blueberries are still producing but they will be done soon.  

That's what's happening in the garden this week.

*shot with my iPhone - sorry for the grainy pics.

Dad's Garden, Part 7

Even considering the beating that the garden has taken over the last week or so with the frequent thunderstorms and a hail storm, the garden is producing like gangbusters right now.

The garden is gorgeous!  A real work of art.

Although the foliage on this tomato plant isn't impressive,

this heirloom tomato makes amazing fruit.

It evidently is more concerned about putting its efforts

into the tomatoes, not the leaves.

This isn't a row of weeds, it is a row of barley.

Dad is growing it to use in his pond to control algae. 

Who knew?

The okra is coming along.

This particular variety that Dad grows is really nice - the pods don't get spiny as it grows.

Okra is one of those veggies that I love just about any way that it is cooked - boiled, pickled, fried, just about any way but raw.

These snaggle-toothed rows are a sign that cabbage season is coming to an end. 

Between the heads of cabbage that Dad has harvested for them, church, neighbors

and your's truly he has picked about 60 heads.

There are a few of these beauties left. 

This one was particularly pretty with the rain dotting the edges of the leaves.

As the cabbages fade out, the sweet potato mounds are starting to take off. 

Over the next couple of weeks these vines will take off.

Dad spends a lot of time picking blueberries because the birds want to help pick the berries.

He told me he looked out his window and his blueberry bushes looked like

Christmas trees because of all of the cardinals munching on the berries.

Lovely, productive time of the year in my folk's yard.

Dad's Garden, Part 6

So - after church today the family and I went to my folks' home to celebrate Father's Day.

Turns out it isn't Father's Day.

Oh well, at least we weren't late.

We enjoyed lunch that included cole slaw, green beans, and squash casserole -

all made with veggies fresh out of the garden.

We might just have to celebrate Father's Day again next week, you know, when it is really Father's Day. 

The green-to-dirt ratio is shifting rapidly.

I love the way the garden looks now.

Very green and orderly.

The tomatoes are coming right along.

When these babies start ripening there are going to be lots of tomatoes to deal with.

Canned tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, sliced tomatoes, BLTs.

Mmmmm, sounds good to me!

This pretty silvery foliage belongs to the broccoli. 

I asked Dad if it was going to be able to head before the heat gets to it. 

He tells me that it is a heat-tolerant variety.

Good thing, it has been crazy hot lately.

Cute, huh?

The Grandma Parham's beans are producing now!

I love these beans.

I think these are the only green beans that I have actually craved.

The Grandmas Parham's beans start off with these cute little flowers...

And turn into these lovely magenta beans.

They turn green when you cook them, but they start off the prettiest color.

Speaking of pretty - this cabbage looks like a giant rose.

Just lovely.

Pretty darn tasty too.