Summer Gourding

This summer has not been entirely about cake.  I do have other hobbies, including gardening.  The heat wave right after 4th of July did wonders for the pickling cucumbers, watermelon, and butternut squash.  I lost the celery, though.  It couldn't take three days of 100º.

Continued warm and humid weather is exactly what the summer garden needed.  It felt like only days before the cucumbers went from blossoms to big fat pieces that had to be canned.  I made a quart of Grandma's Dill pickles, but sliced them into spears first.  They were less intimidating that way.

Before I knew it, itsy tiny butternut squash girl buds were forming.  The watermelon had been blooming for a while, but only started putting out girls the same week the butternut did.  Allergy time, but it's worth it.

I'm going to have a huge crop of fennel seed this year.  I let two go this time, and they're huge.  You can't tell from the photo, but one of them is almost as tall as I am.  It looks more like a small tree than a vegetable.

I'm really going to enjoy this harvest season.  Variety is so much more fun than a lot of one thing.  I even seeded some new carrots, so they'll be ready when it's time to pull out all these vines.