Apples are Arriving!

A lazy Sunday at home. It's nice enough out that we should have gone for a hike or something, but nothing ever gelled. The farmers market was pretty packed today, and Twin Springs had some of their first apples of the season: ginger gold and akane. The akane are nice and tart, but the flesh is a little waxy (for lack of a better descriptor); the ginger gold have a crisper tooth, but the flavor doesn't grab the same way the tartness of the akane does. Maybe I've been eating too many fuji apples from Chile and New Zealand and I'm craving the tarter apples. It is still many months until the gold rush apples hit the market; they're the last to arrive, usually not until after Thanksgiving, but they keep all winter and are soooooooo good.

Dinner tonight should be zucchini. We have three we harvested earlier in the week and there's one on the plant that I may pull off this evening. The crookneck squash gave up the ghost last week, so Evelin pulled it out, and the rolly-poly squash has yet to produce a single gourd. The butternut squash, however, are starting to fruit, so we may get some good ones in October.

The first bell pepper is looking like it might be ready for plucking in another week and a few others seem to be moving beyond the bud stage. Tomatoes ... we got to eat the first four cherries this weekend. Sadly, that's been it. The rest remain sitting on the vine getting neither ripe, nor red (or yellow or peach or less green, depending upon variety). I pulled one carrot; it was all of two inches long. Evelin's calendar says we should be sowing our second crop of carrot by now. The basil is looking good however; we may make a big batch of pesto this week, setting some aside to freeze and hoping the plants produce enough more leaves for a second big batch before winter. Yesterday, while cutting the grass, I did find a small strawberry in the front flowerbed that was ripe; nice and tasty. This morning I found two more, but the ants/birds/something had already gotten to them (sigh). The fig tree is as prolific as ever, which the birds enjoy, and if it keeps them away from the raspberries (not that there are any berries on the canes) then that's fine.