This week has been all about garlic. As somewhat of a celebration of the summer solstice on Tuesday, I harvested garlic, loosening the soil with a digging fork and then exclaiming gleefully at the beautifully large heads I pulled out of the ground. Root crops are always fun to harvest, because you never know exactly what you’ll find.

After gathering and hauling the garlic out of the garden, I strung it up on twine and hung it in an outbuilding to cure for a few weeks. While you can certainly use garlic fresh out of the ground, the curing process dries the papery outer layers and allows the heads to be stored.

Those of you who follow me on Facebook may have seen that I’ve been working on a new product this week. On Thursday, with some of the garlic left over from last year, I made garlic salt! I had previously dried the garlic in a dehydrator, so all that was left was to grind it into powder and mix it with pink Himalayan salt. It smells so good! I like to use garlic salt in place of table salt on just about everything. Mmm, garlic.

So what’s growing in the garden? All the summer vegetables! Last week, I shared about all the flowers heralding fruits to come, and this week, some of those blossoms have already given way to baby veggies. Teeny tiny beans should be plumping up enough to harvest in another week or two, and the waist-high cherry tomato plants already have pea-size green fruits on them.

The corn is also lush and about shoulder height, though the winds from Wednesday’s storm knocked much of it over. (Don’t worry, it should recover.) And although the yellow summer squash doesn’t have blossoms yet, it looks like it will soon!

As I predicted last week, the radishes and lettuce are, unfortunately, done for the season. The peas, too, are finally slowing down, though I harvested a few pints this morning to sell tomorrow. Come early – they sell out quick! I’ll also have the new garlic salt, of course, as well as fire salt and all of my handmade items.

See you at the market!

Every year, the bush beans transform from tidy rows of seedlings into a tangled mass of lush foliage until finally, just as they seem to consider taking over the pathways, tiny pink blossoms appear. Soon, slender pods will grow and weigh down the plants, and my mornings will be consumed with picking.

Many gardeners quit growing beans due to the tediousness of harvesting them. But I have an unaccountable fondness for bush beans, and I’m learning to see picking beans as a practice in patience and meditation and gratitude for the abundance we are gifted with. So when I glimpse those first little flowers, I feel nothing but joy.

The tomatoes, too, are sending out their first blossoms – tiny, yellow, starry things appearing in clusters – even though many of the plants have yet to reach even half of their full height. I already find myself struggling to keep up with the pruning and trellising, though, they’re growing so fast! The cherry tomatoes seem especially determined to grow into wild, dense bushes.

In the heat this week, the radishes have begun to bolt, so this Saturday may be the last chance to get some at least until fall. The lettuce will likely do the same soon. The peas, however, show no sign of slowing, but continue to grow taller and put out new white blossoms.

So come on out to the Broadway Community Market on Saturday for spring veggies and many other items! We’re experimenting with extended hours this week, remaining open from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. to give you an extra hour of shopping time. I’m looking forward to checking out the new dessert trailer!

The garden is finally starting to look like a garden, with the corn already knee-high, summer squash growing like weeds, and beans lush and ready to flower any day.

It progresses in fits and starts in the spring. Although I begin planting in March (peas!), black plastic remains over many beds until late May, making things look rather unimpressive for a while. So it’s gratifying to stand at the gate now and see new growth in every bed!

As the summer crops begin to fill out, the spring vegetables are starting to wane. The market table will still look much the same as last week, though: this morning, I harvested more radishes, sugar-snap peas, and lettuce. The lettuce has had a rough season, with something munching on it at every turn, so there isn’t much of it. But I should still have radishes and peas for a couple more weeks, and hopefully green onions soon! (They also had a rough start. Darn voles.)

The Broadway Community Market has a wonderful mix of season-long and occasional vendors, which means there’s almost always something new to check out each Saturday. Tomorrow, for instance, we welcome a mobile café from West Virginia and my favorite waste-free store, Great.Full Goods. We’ll all be there rain or shine, from 8 a.m. until noon.

Cooking Tip

Did you know that you can cook radishes? We often think of them as a crunchy, tangy, salad ingredient, but radishes also make a wonderful addition to stir-fries! The other day, I sliced some up and tossed them in a wok with my own peas and garlic and some local carrots. With a splash of soy sauce, dash of ground ginger, and hint of honey, it was delicious! I definitely recommend it.

See you at the market!