I think I mentioned in my previous post how I’ve never gotten very excited about Christmas in July. It seems odd to me to celebrate a holiday apart from the actual holiday, to completely remove the meaning and occasion and turn it into shallow fun. And yet, I’ve also always jumped at any opportunity to celebrate something. Special meal? Count me in. Cake? I’m there. Decorations? Absolutely.

So, a Christmas in July Evening Market? Why not! I’ve been happily crocheting little Christmas trees and mini stockings, and I even have colored lights set out to bring for display. This fun popup market happens today from 6pm until 8pm, at the Broadway Community Market. Vendors will have regular offerings as well as festive items, including special food! Jillian’s Farmstead Kitchen is offering a choice of turkey or roast beef platters, and Wiches and Brew will have sandwiches and holiday-themed lattes and cocoa.

I will be set up with the aforementioned crocheted Christmas trees and stockings, as well as other giftable crocheted items and fresh produce: tomatoes, beans, garlic, cucumbers, yellow squash, and chocolate bell peppers. If you can’t make it out to the market this evening, I will also have all of these things at the regular market on Saturday morning!

See you at the market!

The weather has been teasing the past couple days, with overcast skies and an occasional drizzle, but nothing of any real substance. I am immensely grateful that I finally invested in drip tape irrigation this spring. Instead of spending every morning hauling a hose through the garden (and grumbling when it flattens a plant instead of staying in the path), I simply turn on the spigot and let water seep through the drip tape for about an hour a couple times each week.

I’ve been picking beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and I plan to finally harvest the first of the cucamelons tomorrow! I also hope to get some of the garlic, which has been curing in the basement, trimmed and cleaned up for market on Saturday. Of course, I have garlic salt made from last year’s garlic, too, and it’s great on just about everything.

I took the platter in the image at the top of this post to a small gathering last weekend, and the Dragon Tongue beans were a hit! They’re at least as delicious fresh as they are cooked. I grew everything in that dish from seed, which is immensely satisfying (including the carrots, though the harvest has been very small so far).

Next Wednesday, July 24, is the special Christmas in July Evening Market, from 6 to 8 p.m. We have a great lineup of vendors with festive items alongside their usual offerings, including some special food. Check out the Facebook page for vendor spotlights (link above).

I don’t usually get excited about Christmas in July – it’s a bit of a strange concept – but I’ve been happily working away at a new festive crochet project: Christmas trees! These cute little evergreens stand on their own but will pack flat to take up minimal storage space. I also plan to bring mini stockings, as well as my usual crocheted offerings and, of course, fresh produce.

See you at the market!

Disappointing good news? Has the heat addled my brain? Possibly. But I do have good news, and it is laced with disappointment. So, here it is: I picked the first of the Dragon Tongue beans this week! These are my favorite bush beans, a stringless yellow wax type with purple streaks, crisp texture, and excellent flavor. I love them raw, steamed, sautéed, and pickled.

Okay, but what’s so disappointing about harvesting my favorite beans? Well, there should be green beans mixed in with the Dragon Tongues, but instead there are empty gaps in the first bean bed where the green beans should be. Inexplicably, the green beans never sprouted, while the Dragon Tongues appear to have had near 100 percent germination rates. The second planting of beans has yet to set pods but also looks patchy, so we’ll have to wait and see if there are green beans in that bed.

Speaking of waiting, the cucamelons are taunting us, taking their sweet time ripening. Part of this, undoubtedly, has to do with the drought, as cucumbers love water, and irrigation can only achieve so much. There’s nothing quite like a good soaking rain to set the garden on a sudden growth spurt.

And yet, I do have a good pile of slicing cucumbers to bring to the Broadway Community Market Saturday morning, as well as zucchini, yellow squash, and the first tomatoes! You can also find garlic salt made with my own homegrown garlic, aloe plants, and crocheted flower bookmarks, fish scrubbies, dish cloths, skillet handle covers, and fishbowl stuff-and-spill toys at my booth.

See you at the market!