The summer harvest truly begins with the first handful of beans. From there, everything seems to descend into a kind of delightful, abundant chaos: beans, zucchini, tomatoes, okra… I suddenly find myself scrambling to keep up with the harvesting, never mind the weeding, trellising, and watering.

All spring I repeat like a mantra, “Soon, soon, soon.” And then a handful of beans, and a week or two later, everything.

We’re at the handful-of-beans stage this week, so if you want to taste the firstfruits of summer, come early to the market tomorrow! I also still have chard (it’s called perpetual spinach for a reason!) and the last of the kale, most of which is now more holes than leaves thanks to the pretty but destructive harlequin beetles.

I got a lot of questions about the ‘Perpetual Spinach’ chard last week, so I’ll review it again here. This might just be one of my favorite greens. It is chard, but it has a mild flavor and actually tastes more like spinach. For those, like me, who don’t care for chard, this is a great variety. It can be used raw or cooked, just like spinach, and you can chop up the stems to cook with the leaves, just like chard. The “perpetual” in the name comes from the fact that chard grows from spring until first frost, unlike spinach, which bolts as soon as the summer heat creeps in.

What can you use perpetual spinach in? Anything that calls for chard or spinach! I’ve even put it on pimiento cheese sandwiches. (Jillian’s Farmstead Kitchen, also at the market, has some great pimiento cheese and sourdough bread.)

See you at the market!

The future looks abundant in the garden, with zucchini in full bloom, tomatoes putting on cheery little flowers, and rosy bean blossoms giving way to tiny baby beans. I brushed soil away from the base of one of the carrot plants to find rounded orange shoulders – still small yet, but getting there. And the celery is finally beginning to look like celery!

Most of the plants are a bit behind due to the unusually dry spring, so it’s especially gratifying to see some of the summer crops beginning to produce now that we’ve been getting some rain.

Tomorrow morning should be mostly dry for the Broadway Community Market, though. Come on out to buy some greens and see what all of the other vendors have to offer this week! At the Fairydiddle Farm table you’ll find:

• kale
• perpetual spinach (chard)
• garlic salt
• plants
• dish cloths
• skillet handle covers
• market bags

See you at the market!

After the driest spring in my memory, summer is off to a gloriously rainy beginning. Everything in the garden that was growing slowly now looks lush, and the beans and tomatoes have even begun to bloom! Next week, I think I’ll be scrambling to trellis tomatoes and pull all of the weeds that have suddenly sprung up with all the moisture.

The peas and radishes seem to know that the solstice just occurred. The pea vines are yellowing and the radishes bolting, and I have just a few of each for the market tomorrow. So if you want some of the last sugar snap peas and radishes of spring, come early – they might go fast!

You can also find kale and perpetual spinach (chard) at my table tomorrow, but no lettuce. Somebunny keeps squeezing under the fence and, despite my efforts to block all of the holes, has managed to devour all of my ripe lettuce heads. Oh well. With all of this rain, summer veggies should be ripening soon!

See you at the market!