Apples, carrots, basil, and beans

So much watering... this heat wave has meant I've been out almost every night this summer watering. Which had cut into my blogging time. Anyhow...

The tomatoes are starting to ripen. It hasn't been a good year for them in my yard (despite the heat). I think the crazy heat stunted blossoming (same issue with peppers). I also wonder if the soil where they are planted is played out and needs amendment. A few of the cherry tomatoes are doing alright, though.

Things are better in the carrot bed and I have started thinning. These are yellowstone carrots, which get quite big if they have the space. Not super sweet, but they store okay. We also got third harvest of peas off.

We had to pick the early apple tree early to reduce the load on the branches. There are still plenty of apples on the tree nut but it is looking happier with 50 lbs less weight.

The real story of the summer has been the basil plants, which continue to thrive. I trimmed the top third off this weekend and packed two ice cream pails.

This turned onto a litre and half of pesto, which I'm in the process of freezing in smaller pucks. I'm also going to try an infuse some oil with basil in a week or two (since we've dried and frozen and eaten a lot already).

The green beans are doing well and i'm freezing them. We also have some bush beans that are meant for drying (basically small kidney beans). These are really going hard so we should have a good crop.

Jessica is home from her summer job on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to some help laying brick for the fire pit and also cleaning up the back corner of the yard.