a midsummer garden

  
we had a heat wave a week ago, same as the rest.  it did a number on our crops, but overall everything is doing well.  the heat bolted lots of lettuces, broccoli, herbs and burnt the roma green  beans (luckily we already picked the majority of them). the high temperatures also stunted the growth of the second plantings of green beans, spinach and edamame.  
so... the past few shares have consisted of zukes, mesclun, new potatoes, beans, lettuces, broccoli, bok choi, kale, chard and various herbs.  we've been busy squishing beetles on our edamame and potatoes, keeping an eye out for hornworms, and watering plants.

beautiful kale

autumn crops have dominated our garden thoughts lately.  we planted some super sugar snap peas for the fall, and loads of plug trays full of brassicas (who isn't smitten for fall kale?!) and lettuces.  but that seems far off, because next week we're expecting the first tomatoes, and soon after the first planting of corn and edamame. those are some high ticket crops!
also, the firecracker sunflowers are coming up - yowza! 

edamame, edamame

edamame is a wonderful earth product and tons of fun to say.  how could you go wrong? 
these young and lusty soybeans are high in fiber, heavy in protein, and just bursting with manganese and folate. so eat up folks, 'cause with some tamari sauce they're scrumptious. 

before you is the wonder-plant itself. bathe in its tender glory.

edamame on the stalk.

after we picked the pods from the stalk, they got a quick rinse,

sanitized edamame

then a gentle yet cleansing spa,

steaming hot edamame

followed by an awakening ice bath.  

keep 'em in the ice for the same amount of time you keep 'em in the spa. symmetry, friends. that's what it's all about. 
then we package them into their frozen death, only to be nibbled upon at our random luxury.  

shown are our tohya soybeans.  we made a 20 foot bed with 4 rows. so far we've harvested half of that bed.  it's yielded ~5 or 6 quarts (stored in freezer bags).  that's a lot. so i plan on trying out this edamame hummus recipe sometime this week.