A Lot'O PotatO

The potato bed is beginning to look disheveled, but it is full of potatoes.

 I decided today I would make some potato salad out of the new potatoes with the perfect, flawless skin.  All I have to do is reach into the soil and pull out as many large potatoes as I want.  They're HUGE.  Bigger than my fist.

Of course this got me feeling guilty about the 7 or 8 pounds of wrinkly sprouty ones I still have from last year.  We just don't use a lot of them in the summer.  But they can't wait much longer,,,,  So I decided to try freezing some.  

These won't win any beauty pageants but they are still useful.

The baby tubers on these roots look like jewelry.

I removed the sprouts and gave them a good scrub.  If you are freezing it is best to have the cutting done before you freeze so you are not handling the thawed product anymore than necessary.  I decided on steak fries although home fries for breakfast would work well too.

I blanched them for a little over a minute and then put them right away into an ice bath.

After they were cool I drained them and spread them on a baking sheet and put them in the freezer to flash freeze.  I now have a gallon bag of steak fries ready to use.  I'm sure, like most things, the sooner I use them the better they will turn out.

There are a lot of other things ready to eat in the garden.  The bush beans are ready to pick which is good because I've just about had enough of shelling peas.  The pea plants just won't quit.  I was expecting to have them all pulled out a week or two ago, but the last three rows just keep producing.   I have plenty in the freezer and we're eating them as often as we like.

I will pull at least one row of peas by the end of this week and put in three more rows of bush beans.

The Blue Beauty tomato is showing off it's unique coloring.  It is way more than blue.  The deep purple shoulders are spreading so that as it ripens the entire fruit is becoming deep purple.

We have lots of cantaloupes growing,

And I have seen at least half a dozen watermelon babies.  This one is masquerading as a lime.

We have been enjoying the early cucumbers one at a time but soon will have enough ripe at ones to make pickles.

I finally have eggplants making a show.  Each plant has one set.  A couple set in June but then dropped off in the cool damp weather.  It will be well into August before I have any eggplants ready.