june 4 harvest

it's been raining here a lot so we've not had to go out and water the garden as much as we usually do. so i was so surprised when i went out this past friday to water. everything had grown so much and it was time to start harvesting several veggies!


the louisiana purple pod peas are going gang-busters. this doesn't look like a lot, but it was a couple good handfuls. i cooked them up and they turned green and were so delicious.


i've neglected this kale for a long time. and now we've got this huge load of them. i think we'll be having kale in every meal this week. i love the kale because not only is it yummy, but it grows consistently all year round. and the same plant will last several years. a great garden staple.


the husband was happy because he loves to pull plants out of the ground. there is some sort of super-mario-brothers-sense of satisfaction in that, i guess. but he's always asking me, "is it time to pick the garlic yet?" "is it time to the pick the garlic yet?" he couldn't have cared less about the kale that was falling all over the place. he just wanted to pull out those roots. so we did. i think we've got a pretty good harvest this year.


this is not something you can eat, but i thought i'd show that the hydrangea from our wedding is just starting to bloom. for those who don't know, when baldman and i got married, instead of having cut flowers we did potted plants. and then we divided them up amongst the family and friends to take home after the wedding. we didn't have a home at that point so we didn't get a flower. but my grandmom took one and after several years of it unsuccessfully growing in her western pennsylvania home (due to deer eating the flowers), she passed it along to me. so 2 years ago i planted this outside our kitchen window. it grew bigger but the flower never bloomed. i was thrilled when i noticed that it was getting buds this year. i took this picture on friday and already today the blooms are much bigger and deep, deep purple. just beautiful!

we also did a bee check again on saturday. my sister was in town from nyc so she got to see us doing the check.



the status of the hives is pretty similar to what it was when i last posted- hive one going strong, hive two much weaker. in fact, i'm going to email some other beekeepers i know to see what they suggest for the slower hive. i'm not sure if hive 1 is just so amazingly extraordinary, or if hive 2 is just so amazingly slow. or maybe a bit of both. but for a minute on saturday, we thought we had no queen in hive 2 because things are progressing so slowly. i wish there was some sort of bee-keeping list serv or something so i could ask other beekeepers these types of questions more easily. hmm, maybe i'll start one...

anyways, here is what the frames should be doing:

capped and uncapped honey. they cap it for later storage (aka so we can steal it later).


closeup of the capped and uncapped honey and some bees.