Yes onions. This year we found our first ever sweet onion sets at the store. Sweet onions are all we buy so that was nice. Will be nice to see how big they are getting. I eat quite a few green onions too. They have been delicious. Not as hot as the usual variety we buy.
Can also run it through a blender and tweak it into a pepper-onion dressing by adjusting thickness and taste with vinegar/water, maybe oil and adding spices.
It has finally cooled down enough for tomatoes to start ripening. I follow all the local farmer's markets on fb and many of them have had tomatoes right through the 100 degree weather. Could be heat tolerant varieties, use of shade cloth/tunnel, mulch, awesome soil, all of the above.
Hey, they left out two of my favorites — scallions and leeks. And it’s almost impossible to find decent onion rings at the grocery store. End transmission.
I’m an onion-a-holic .... love ‘em .... raw, fried, baked, grilled ... any which way I can get them. Onions are one of the reasons I’m only 95-98% carnivore.
About “done” with the ‘dog days’ of summer/August. Temps in the mid-high 90’s still, heat index as high as 109 in the state (my specific area generally 100-105). We have had plenty of rain the last 2 weeks from T-storms .... another half inch last night with flash flood warnings.
Harvested my first 4 cukes this past week - Divas. The vines are dying .... Dragon Eggs may be dead before I get any cukes although they are blooming like crazy. Divas, from what I’ve read, are more resistant, but they’re on the way out as well. My SIL & brother have already ripped their vines out ... their cukes are “done”, but I started so late (and from seed), that mine are just coming in. My SIL gave me 4 large, beautiful green bell peppers ... my plants are blooming & have some small peppers, but are having a hard time in the heat despite water ... look fine until the afternoon sun & they they get wilty-looking.
The fire station a mile up the road got a box of Celebrities and 4 quarts of Sungolds .... they were happy & remembered that we’d given them tomatoes last year. I’m glad they enjoy them - a small ‘thank you’ for the help we’ve been given such as twice fighting fires (with stuff exploding) at the junk hole property next door & medical calls for dad. They’re also the ones that took me to the ER when I broke my knee this spring.
All is wet & soggy this morning - grass needs mowing again - not making it a week & it’s too high. If it’s not dry enough by this afternoon, I’ll have to do it tomorrow.
Luckily, there are no Left onions... ;^)
(Also, check out Pollards downloadable F/R HTML tool at his home page! I used it on this post! )
So, in the upper 90s. (High 98.) Mornings I usually water when its cooler. Daughter was here so I did not go out until this afternoon which turned out just as well. Had reflective tape on the my Aronia hedge to try and deter the birds, but not, apparently, some robins who were starting to whoop it up and party on my ripe berries. I chased them away, got a bucket, listened to the b-ball game on the radio and picked. (Royals won.)
So in one inning I was able to get about 1 gallon from 7 - 3rd year plants. (Two others are shaded and do not have much fruit.)
According to this, its $30 for 12 oz of juice,
https://foragerchef.com/simple-chokeberry-aronia-preserves/
I have been neglecting them, no fertilizer, not watering, and they have survived pretty well. Viking Aronia is a good upland plant and works well here on my hill top. I will give them more care next year and see if I can up the yield. I think that I will use what I have to make some jam, which does not look difficult to make.
Garden update; Tomatoes still producing, but have started removing determinate varieties Picus, Celebrity. And Early doll. Canned tomatoes. 16 qts.
Planted Heirloom Thorburn's terracota seedlings 3 week ago. Plants are 24' high and putting out flowers and setting fruit. Shishito peppers producing; Blot and Mosquitero have fruit. Cucumbers melting away...Russian pickling from Seed Savers doing better than the Japanese variety from Baker creek. Summer squash/zucchini are affected by heat and multiple insects. Will keep them going as long as possible. Some leeks I planted are growing, Need to plant other retained seedlings now that I have room. Probably plant them in front of the peppers and maybe put some lettuce under the peppers. (Suggestion that they like cool roots makes sense!)
Started fall cabbages and brussel sprouts (90 days maturity) 2 weeks ago using peat pellets. Sprouted..Moved them to 4x4 pots and began mild fertilizing solution. (Orchid fertilizer first 1/4 dilution. 2 days ago with Fish emulsion at low dilution. Moved inside this evening due to the heat. I will set them out in 2 weeks. I am taking a chance that these will not have enough season to mature, but KS will sometimes have a late summer and i have coverings for moderate frost. I started lettuce in pellets yesterday...45-55 day maturity. Again, I have row covers so we will see if the season extends long enough. (Who knows if the early planting or late planting will succeed?)