We got some much-needed rain last night, and the garden is finally beginning to look like it should in midsummer, though most things are still a week or two behind. In the past week, I’ve spotted the first okra blossom, pepper flowers, and baby Dragon’s Egg cucumbers. The tomatoes, too, are finally setting fruit, revealing that I planted three Amish Paste plants in the bed of slicing tomatoes (always clearly label your seedlings, folks).

As expected, the beans have taken off after that first small harvest last week, and I have a good pile of them for market tomorrow. I’m growing two varieties, both stringless bush beans. Provider is a crisp, flavorful green bean great for steaming, sautéing, freezing, pickling, or eating fresh off the plant. The colorful one is Dragon Tongue, a yellow wax bean with purple streaks, and it can be used in all the same ways as the Provider beans. I think they have even better flavor than most green beans, especially when pickled.

I also harvested the first few carrots today, and I’ll have them at the market tomorrow. The orange variety is called Chantenay, chosen because it grows well even in our Virginia clay. And I seem to have a theme going, because the purple ones are Purple Dragon carrots. Despite their plum-colored skin, they are bright orange inside.

So, tomorrow at my market table you can find beans, carrots, and chard, as well as crocheted and knitted items.

(And since I know you’re wondering, according to the Chinese calendar, 2023 is actually the year of the rabbit, which I believe makes next year the year of the dragon. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of dragon-themed produce then, too!)

See you at the market!

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!