Tomatoes and peppers and more tomatoes, oh my!

Yes, as you can guess by the tagline, this week has been a week full of summer harvesting. Nearly everyday I’ve come in from the garden with baskets full of produce ranging from cherry tomatoes to peppermint. In fact, the tomato situation is becoming so dire that I’m pawning off some overflow onto my unsuspecting neighbors. You can only imagine how much I’m swimming in tomatoes if I’m willing to part with some of my bounty. 

For as many tomatoes there are now, ripening on the vine, there’s just as many peppers coming on for the late summer and early fall. My sweet bell peppers are getting plump and my cherry peppers are just starting to blush. I can’t wait to start to pick them for various dishes, specifically stuffed peppers and pickled cherry peppers. This fantasy seems so far away but the time will probably be here before I know it. 

It will be Fall before I know it, the days in NEPA have been mild and the nights even milder. Every morning the smell of Autumn seems to be in the air and the leaves are starting to change in the mountains, positively wonderful. It makes me excited to see that the season change is on its way, I just think it’s a bit early this year. I especially feel like fall is on it’s way because I picked my first pumpkin of the year. Now I know it’s only August but it seemed ready and it had a tiny nibble on it’s skin. So I decided to pick it and cure it in the garage. Hopefully, it doesn’t rot where it has been nibbled but I cleaned the flesh with peroxide and sealed it with Vaseline until the wound scabs over. I know I could’ve left it on the vine to scab but there have been so many insects out lately, specifically flies, I didn’t want to risk bugs getting into the flesh. That would be really devastating.

Nevertheless, I can only say that I truly enjoy watching my pumpkins and corn grow into the changing season. I just hope by the end of Fall I have so many pumpkins that I won’t know what to do with them. It will be so satisfying to carve my own homegrown pumpkin for Halloween and make a deliciously sweet pie for Thanksgiving. It’s these simple pleasures that make gardening and even life worth while.

The corn is growing nice and tall, I even spotted my Glass Gem Corn starting to silk. But even more exciting news is that I picked my first cob of sweet corn! I unfortunately picked it too early but still I picked my first cob ever. It was very small and underdeveloped but still a momentous occasion, I’m so proud of my little pearly white cob. I’m hoping my other cobs are better than this first but you have to start somewhere. 

Unfortunately, my update this week is pretty brief. I had a very busy week with canning tomatoes and starting a new job, as well as having another rainy week kept me out of the garden somewhat. But I do hope I get more time in the garden this coming week, however with Autumn right around the corner I’ll be needed less and less. As the weeks progress my garden updates will naturally start to become more brief until the garden is closed for the year all together. But don’t worry, we’re months away from being done completely. So, please keep following for any update, you never know when I’m going to have an extremely eventful week. Regardless of how this week went, I still was able to take plenty of pictures for all of you to enjoy. 

Please check out the garden in all its glory in the gallery down below and until next week, Happy Gardening!