It has been a whirlwind week. A blur of harvesting since I sat here writing last week. Our time is spent working down rows of beans, cucumbers and summer squash. This will only increase when the tomatoes begin to produce and peppers and eggplants will join the line up soon after.

We also began the first of our bulk harvests with some of our early garlic varieties. They are the first crops that mature all at once and need to be harvested all at once. Last week we pulled up our German Red Garlic and garlic that my sister brought to us from Bulgaria. As the field dries out a bit over the next few days we will continue our garlic harvest. We pull the plants, shake the excess dirt from the bulbs, and tie them in the barn to cure. As they hang, they develop their full flavor and dry out for long term storage. In the meantime we enjoy the mild flavor of the green garlic.

While we harvest, the summer crops seem to double in size while we are not looking. The winter squash cover the landscape fabric that was blowing away only a few weeks ago. Sunflowers are taller than I am. The tomato plants outside form thick walls and the tomatoes in the greenhouse have almost touched the roof.