Summer Most Heat Moon
The mid-summer harvest has well begun with the first crop of beets now almost all picked,
about a half of the first carrot crop and early green beans. The garlic, though late, is getting close and several of my onion stems were lying down yesterday, a sign they want to come out of the ground for drying.
I have a second crop of beets and carrots already on their way to maturity and a third planting in some places sporting two or three leaves. The tomatoes have begun to flesh out and I expect, with some heat, that we’ll begin to see ripe tomatoes in the next week. Kate picked a large batch of blueberries yesterday and I had some for breakfast this morning.
The fruit trees are disappointing. Almost no apples, cherries and no plums and very few pears. Kate may have the right 
diagnosis (her real gift in the art of medicine). No bees. There are, as always, many many currants and our crop of gooseberries is as big as it’s ever been. I’m going to pick them tomorrow. We also have a sizable hazelnut crop this year.
As usual the garden’s bounty varies, but as far as the vegetables go, this is as good a year as I’ve seen in our 20 years here.
(gooseberries)