by A.J. Coltrane
It’s been more than two weeks since the last post, but then, I started this post on the 6th and today is the 8th, so you can kinda see how it’s been going around here…
Previous Update post here. August 2, 2015 post here. August 3, 2014 post here. August 4, 2013 post here.
The 2013 post includes the “search favorite” picture: “Girl Cat With Bags Of Green Stuff”:
…complete with a caption referencing the 2012 Olympics — “McKayla Is Not Impressed”.
Also — “Green Stuff” wasn’t legal in Washington state at that time, which I’m sure contributed to the popularity of the photo.
The garden is finally now producing. We had a smallish midweek harvest:
The Oregon Spring are far and away the best and earliest producers this year:
The Taxis are sharing a box with the Oregon Spring. They’re “next”:
The “overview” picture. Shortly after this photo we cleaned wonky leaves out of the bottom of the tomato plants. Next week’s picture will look very different:
Note the basil on the far right of the overview picture — we’ve been trimming it back far more aggressively this year and it seems to like it. A closeup:
I feel like we could trim the basil twice a week at this point and it would just grow faster. Maybe we’ve been “doing it wrong” all along.
The Yellow Pear tomatoes are starting to ripen (bottom right) — pictured with Sun Golds:
The Paul Robeson are rocking. I have high hopes that they’ll taste good:
Bell Peppers of some sort in the foreground. So far not many have been “bored”. We’ll see:
The cucumbers are now producing 2-3 fruits every couple of days:
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Visit Dave at Ourhappyacres, host of Harvest Monday.
FlatbreadGarden 
By the way, I used the blanch and flash-freeze method for basil preservation this year. It’s time-consuming (as is all preserving/canning methods) but the results look very promising.
Boil up some water and blanch basil (on the stem) for 10-15 seconds, then plunge into cold/ice water.
Line a sheet or rack with wax paper, pick the leaves off the stems, and lay flat on the wax paper.
Put the sheet/rack into the freezer and let the leaves solidify.
Store in the freezer, with leaves in layers, separated by wax paper, in a ziploc bag.
Leaves stay fairly green, don’t get bitter (in my experience), and can be crumbled over dishes or buzzed up for pesto.
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