Community Garden Veggies

Today, a day when so many of us are still in shock over the untimely death of a beloved actor and comedian,  I wanted to give you a glimpse into what we grow in our community garden.

I came so close to not going forward with this and then I decided I needed to go forward with this post.  There is so much I want to write, but I am not ready to do it yet.

So in the meantime, I bring you -

Squash.  Unlike most people who run every time they see a neighbor's zucchini, we love them.  My spouse and I have so many ways to use these.  If you want, I might even share one of those recipes with you.

Tomatoes.  There is nothing more delicious than a vine-ripened tomato, even a blurry one. I won't even eat fresh tomatoes out of season. I've always been disappointed.

This year, we are only growing one heirloom tomato, a Mr Stripey.  We've had so many problems with late blight, we are depending on specially bred hybrids this year.  This year, our main tomatoes are Jasper and Defiant (Defiant pictured above.) We are also growing Better Boys and Jetstar.

Onions are our go-to crop - year in and year out, they are our best crop.  We are in a commercial onion area (actually, more to the north near Syracuse) and we must have similar conditions.  We start all of our onions from mail order plants, and usually grow at least five varieties of onions, plus leeks.

Speaking of squash, the flowers are edible (and delicious). I'd like to share a recipe from an excellent blog written by one Chef William, for a Squash Blossom Omelet.

Not pictured - swiss chard, also doing well this year.

Our beans, alas, are a failure - wild animals ate them all.  Our cucumbers started to bear, but then got mildew almost overnight.  RIP Beans and Cucumbers.

Do you have a garden? What do you like to grow?