Bean there.

The first beans came off our bushes this afternoon!  This calls for a celebration.  Involving a steamer and a dollop of butter.  I like 'em cooked just past squeakiness, but I know there are lots of people who think that the squeak is proof that they're cooked just right.  However they're cooked, beans from our own plants are the best beans there are.  

It's a modest haul, but we weren't trying to clear the plant, just to grab enough for dinner.  When we went to the market on Saturday morning, I didn't think we'd have beans this week, so I got a healthy amount of beans then.  Not all of them have been eaten.  To be honest, I am not at all sure that all of the beans we picked (and then blanched and froze) last year have been consumed.  

We'd both been under the weather for the past few days.  As a result, we hadn't even seen the plot since Friday.  We knew to expect some zucchinis to be ready.  Actually, it's not as bad as I thought.  Only 6 were ready for picking and only one of those 6 is really big.  I think we should have a stuffed zuke for dinner tonight, just to get the biggie out of the way.  Or else we can save the stuffing recipes for later and make a cake or some bread with the large fellow.  Decisions, decisions.

The weather has turned into almost perfect growing conditions.  We get huge amounts of rain followed by a day or two of hot sunshine.  The rainy days are not mediterranean-ly outnumbered by the sunny days, but I hold out every hope of successful tomatoes.  There are fruit coming along and they still have at least a month to get red.  

The beets are not done yet, but we picked two more today and sooner rather than later all of the others will come out, too.  We had some lacklustre beet greens (from the market) over the weekend and it cast a pall over our plans to chomp them all down in a hurry.  I guess they're all getting older now.  

The spring onions have worked out very well.  It turns out that thinning can happen whenever.  I generally pick big fat ones from bunches of thinner ones and then when I come back, the thinner ones are growing into bigger fatter ones.  The little tiny ones were also good to eat; great in salad dressings and on potatoes as though there were very potent chives.  I'll have to remember that trick for next year:  Just plant the whole packet and deal with what comes up.  Some thinning will be required, but not as much as they say on the packet.  

The egyptian walking onions, on the other hand, are making babies all over the place and need some abortions.  I think we'll just do away with them completely.  They're not good for eating and we really want to devote our space to things we can eat.  

The potatoes are finished flowering.  Does that mean we can start having new potatoes soon?  There are few things better than a potato fresh from the ground.  Who knew that the floury, starchy vegetable that we eat (and I enjoy) all winter long starts its life as a wonderful creamy confection?  That's the joy of gardening, I guess.