June 2013 Crop Report

Summertime is upon us and every afternoon I grab the produce bucket and make my way down each row, picking vegetables that are ripe and checking the progress of growth (and pests).  It is always so rewarding to see months of hard work pay off with a bountiful harvest of good, fresh vegetables to eat, preserve, and share with family and friends.

Here is a pictorial progress report of our crop.  First we have a pot full of four types of beans, including Roma Italian green beans, Contender green beans, Dragon Tongue Beans, and Chinese Mosaic Long Beans.  They are accompanied by some freshly dug, new red and white potatoes.  That is a pot of good eating, right there.


Pot full of goodness

We have a wheel barrow that is filled with hay and some yellow squash.  Tricia made this into a nice squash casserole.  You can't beat it. 

Yellow squash

Small Money maker tomatoes are coming in as well.  Tricia uses these to make Mexican rice with gizzards from our meat birds.  I was never a big fan of gizzards, but they are growing on me as long as they are cooked down so they're not rubbery.


Money Maker tomatoes

We pick a handful of nice cucumbers each and every afternoon.  We can't eat these fast enough.  Sometimes the heat really takes its toll on our cucumbers, but so far they are holding up well and producing.


Organic pickling cucumber

The Chinese Mosaic Long beans vined up the trellis with vines 10 feet long and growing.  We've found that they are better when picked young and tender rather than waiting for the beans to fill out in the pods.  This was a new crop for us and one that is a keeper.  They seem to do better in the heat than the normal green beans and produce well.


Long Beans (18 inch long pods)

Here are some Anaheim peppers.  We like the flavor of these as they have a little more 'zing' than a sweet bell pepper, but aren't as hot as a cayenne or jalapeno.  These are great for cooking and adding flavor to meat and rice dishes.


Anaheim Peppers

These are Purple Beauty Sweet Bell Peppers.  I like the way these look and taste.


Pretty Purple Peppers (alliteration is great, isn't it?)

The tomatoes are absolutely loaded up and are going to keep us busy blanching, freezing, and canning in a week or so if we can keep the stink bugs off of them. 

Nice Heirloom Tomato

This is another type of squash we grow called Ronde de Nice.  It is another type of zucchini that is round (hence the name) and originates in Nice, France.


Ronde de Nice Squash

I would be remiss if I didn't give an update on our other "crop," the one we're most proud of - our kids!  We moved Laura Lee out of the dorms at LSU and back home for a couple of weeks before she heads to Hot Springs, Arkansas to be a camp counselor all summer.  The semester came to and end and she did fantastic, providing a bumper crop of good grades.

Packing up the dorm on move-out day

She posed in front of West Laville Hall, her home for the last semester.  Time flies.  It seems like it was just yesterday that we moved her in!


Laura Lee and West Laville Hall



Farewell, dormitory!

In other crop news, we went back to LSU for an awards ceremony for Russ at a 4-H Banquet.  Russ won a nice 4-H scholarship resulting from his hard work showing his Dairy Cows and writing a terrific essay.  The scholarship will really help to defray some of the costs of college.  4-H is a great program!


Russ is posing with the Crafts, donors of his 4-H scholarship.

In other crop news, Benjamin attended Boy Scout Camp all week long and I picked him up today.  He had a great time and was excited that his Troop won the 'golden tent peg' award for keeping their campsite clean.  Tricia and I are curious to see if that translates over to keeping his room clean!....


Benjamin at Camp Edgewood in Gillis, Louisiana

That's it for the crop report today.  Looks like a nice harvest, thank the Good Lord.