Hot Summer Sunday Harvest

Last year, I planted a whole bunch of onions, both started from seed as well as from starts. I planted them in every little nook and cranny that was available at the time. Most of these got shaded out by the many volunteer tomato plants that I let go to maturity.  I pretty much thought they were a lost cause.  I was kind of sad about it, but overall the garden did so well that I didn't care as long as I was getting food out of all the space that I had.  So I forgot about them.  I let the chickens dig around them to their liking, knowing full well that whatever chickens have access to, they will destroy beyond recognition.

Then spring came.  And so did the onions.  Back with a vengeance, they did.  They tried flowering, so I broke off each of the buds to encourage energy to go to the bulb, and just let them do their thing.  Some of them recently started getting these weird bulges growing in their leaves, so just out of curiosity, I pulled one up.  It had a pretty good onion attached to it so I pulled another.  Then I couldn't stop myself. I pulled 'em all.  There were 22.  Out of that, 20 of them had good onions or onion-like things attached to them.  Some are a little smaller than tennis balls, some about the size of a large marble. Maybe some of them could have used more time in the ground with their stems squished, but the temptation to pull was just too great and I like to think of them as reclaimed food that I previously had thought were lost so it really was a win all around for me.  The onions I started this year are sucking it up big time.  I just hope they're saving their energy for next year.

I also got several handfuls of berries.  I've given up on the strawberries, by the way.  They just keep getting half red, then robbed.  

The carrots are getting close.  My temptation to pull is getting stronger each day.  So I pulled 3.  It was way too much fun.

So happy about these.

I get about this much every day.

Yesterday, I made a delicious salad out of some carrots, peas, and a bunch of lettuce I pulled because it was starting to bolt in the hot weather. I topped it with a little sliced red onion and what a delicious 100% home-grown salad it was!

The ladies really enjoyed those carrot tops.

I also pulled my pea plants. I let a good handful of them go to full peas so I have seeds for next year.  My pepper and eggplant plants were needing a new home with better soil so I moved those over to where the peas used to be. I also had cilantro and shiso plants that needed to get in the ground so I put those there too.  Then I planted a batch of sugar snap peas where the other stuff was, since peas are less needy of really good soil.  (I did, however, add some compost to help them out.)

So now the peas are left in their pods and have been set out to fully dry on the vine. They should be hulled and dry by next weekend.  It was a hot day, but still really great to play in the dirt.

Happy hot summer day my friends!  Have a fun and safe 4th of July!  Here are some more pictures from today as a bonus:

Dragonfly hangin' with the 'chokes. Where's Gus?

Gus normally sleeps in a very compact ball.  But on a hot day like today, he prefers the sprawl method.