Here’s Lisel enjoying the very first green bean pick of 2009.  It was a bit mosquito-ridden, but she loved every minute of it.

Here’s George taking a break from pushing the wheel hoe.  He’s made many, many trips up and down those aisles, and it’s made a huge difference in the weed pressure this year.  In addition to the mulching effect of the black plastic, his diligence in knocking the bindweed and Canada thistle back has resulted in very clean beds.  Hurray!

Between the four of us (me, Jimmy, George, and Lisel), we have averaged since March right around 24 hours per week in our little garden of 11,000 square feet.  It’s no small task keeping all these veggies going, and it wouldn’t be possible without this gang.

Thanks for the hard work, guys!

The growth plants put on at the end of June and through July is pretty incredible.  The picture above was taken June 22, about 14 days after transplanting tomatoes and peppers.  The next photo shows the same beds (although from the opposite side) on July 1, nine days later.  I you look at the beds furthest away, where the posts are, you can see that they’ve already grown quite a bit.  (The closest two beds have just been planted to cucumber.)

This final photo shows the same beds on July 24.  Here, the growth is pretty amazing.  A single month can make an amazing difference.

In this picture, you can also see how much growth the cukes (the two beds closest to the camera) have put on.  While there’s no fruit yet on the cucumber plants, the tomatoes are starting to blush, and the peppers are already sizing up, with quite a few about ready to be picked green.

While all of this growth was occuring, the peas were declining.  The hot weather (and probably not enough water) has put an end to their production.  The few pods being produced are tough and not very yummy.  That’s the way it goes around here in July.

Amazing and fun!

Introducing Jimmy!  He’s been helping us out in the garden this summer.  Over the past several weeks, he’s become quite handy with the wheel hoe and can identify bindweed, Canada Thistle, Lambsquarter, and Pigweed from 500 yards.  He has been instrumental in keeping the garden mostly-weed-free this year.  Yea Jimmy!  And thanks!

New this week are Fava beans, yellow squash, and zucchini!  Everyone’s pretty familiar with squash and zucchini, but you might not know about Fava beans.  Here’s some info:

Also called Broad Beans, they are a traditional ingredient in Italian and Mediterranean cooking.  They look somewhat like Lima beans, and have a buttery, nutty flavor.  They are usually par-boiled for a couple of minutes and then shelled before cooking, but I learned of another delicious, and easy, way to prepare them this weekend: on the grill!

Chef Deb Traylor from the Longmont Farmers Market demonstrated this technique at the market on Saturday.  She tossed the whole beans in olive oil, placed them on the grill, salted and peppered them, and let them char slightly.  Then we ate them like edamame.  Boy were they delicious!

For more details, visit Chef Deb’s blog at http://thetastybits.blogspot.com/2009/07/grilled-fava-beans.html.