Week 18, Season 2017-18

We have managed our way through a rather challenging season.  High and low temperatures in the area were pretty dramatic and crops haven't liked it.  We are nearing the end of harvesting lettuce crops. Strawberries are also on the decline as night and day temperatures have increased.  We still have squash, beans, corn, melons, and cantaloupe in the ground.  Our leeks look good and I believe that we will have our first harvest of sweet onions this weekend.  Corn is about a foot high and beans are  2-4 inches tall.  The sweet potatoes are finished, and the red potatoes will be harvested soon. Cucumbers were burnt out by the frost for the third time this season.  I am thinking, unfortunately, that we will have to pass on cukes this year.  This period is difficult between cool and warm season veggies.  Cool weather ends abruptly and the heat takes off like a rocket.  Plants just can't react that quickly, so we usually have a few meager weeks around this time.

We managed to pick quite a few mulberries from a tree I planted about five years ago.  This was a nice surprise and the tree is still loaded.  I expect we will harvest for a few more weeks.  The first pick made its way into my mulberry and strawberry jam.  Sometimes I add blueberries and call it multi-berry jam.  I believe we might have enough for another week's pickup.  I really love the taste of mulberries right off the tree, in jam, used in smoothies, or as toppings.  I could do without the hitch hiking thrips, but that kind of goes with the season and  the fruit.  If you wash the mulberries or blow on them, thrips usually find other retreats.  I will propagate a few more mulberry plants this year and plant them in the fruit block after they root.