Hot and spicy!

The dog days of summer are here, and the past couple weeks have been scorchers, which it makes it absolutely miserable to be out in the garden weeding (unless you get out there by 6 am, which is not so much an option for someone who is most definitely NOT a morning person). So I guess it is my own self imposed torture to do my weeding in the 95 degree heat. Sweating is supposed to be good for you, right? I have even managed to avoid getting a sunburn for the most part by being vigilant with the sunscreen, but I did get one of the worst burns I have had in a long time in one of the most unlikely places... lets just say that I need to start applying sunscreen to my backside because apparently when I spend hours bent over weeding, there is a sliver of exposed skin in the space between the bottom of my shirt and the top of my shorts. Not a fun place to have a sunburn! Anyway, the garden is producing veggies faster then I can pick them (I swear if I sat and watched a cucumber for a couple hours I could see it grow!). I planted a patch of "late" corn the first week of July and it has done so much better than out first batch of corn, I think being able to water whenever we need to has made all the difference. Look at how much it has grown just over the past 3 weeks...

I also discovered that we had a few "volunteer" squash plants that randomly showed up in the field beside the garden. It's funny because we lost almost all of our squash plants to insects this year, but these guys seem to be doing great! I call them my "squash surprise" :)


I have already canned my first batch of tomatoes, and would have been doing more of the same this week if it hadn't been for a particularly bad thunderstorm that knocked over many of our tomato plants.The plants themselves seem to have survived, but many of the tomatoes that were on the vine were knocked off, which is very frustrating. We have already devised a better design for tomato cages that should prevent this problem, but obviously we'll have to wait until next year to implement it. This week I also tried a new recipe recommended by Krista's mom called Summer Tomato Pie...I swear it's one of the most delicious things you'll ever put in your mouth! The peppers are loving this hot weather (see photo below), and I had enough jalapeno and banana peppers to make pickled peppers earlier this week(my favorite pizza topping!). Once my cayenne peppers ripen then I can start on the salsa and pepper jelly too, yum!