Hellooooo gardeners!!

(L-R) Corn is huge, squash plants are huge, pinwheels are adorable!

We did some really fun things last week. Among them: visiting a meadery (no, we did not spell that wrong and yes, MEAD as in fermented honey, as in drink of the vikings!), filling small vials with fox urine and hanging them all around the garden,

selling produce at the South Hadley farmer's market,

Note: proportionality. Forget tents, we conveniently used the shade.

and writing a more PC gardener's version of David Guetta's song "Sexy Chick" to incorporate the most important Divas in our lives at the moment (our very own Diva cucumbers).

Yes we went there.

Oh yeah, and we made $12 at the farmer's market...and found an additional 50 cents on the ground! Basically we're just raking it in. With a rake. Or a hoe. Or your gardening tool of choice.

(L) Brittany and Annie holding the first Farmer's Market dollar!
(R) Proud market gardener Annie and our first customer, Lauren Darby.

But enough about gardening tools. As beforementioned, last week we went to Green River Ambrosia Meadery, where we met Garth for a tour. What a cool guy! Garth was very nice, and showed us all around the fermentation plant. Having a mere 20 years beneath both of our respective belts, we were unable to sample the mead; however, there is also a kombucha operation going on at the same place. Garth was kind enough to give us samples of all of their varieties of kombucha -- each one was delicious! -- so look for Katalyst Kombucha and Green River Ambrosia Mead at stores supporting local businesses in the Valley (though we can't personally vouch for the mead, we're sure it's also delicious).

http://www.greenriverambrosia.com/

In other news...

WE (QUITE POSSIBLY) HAVE A TOMATILLO FRUIT!!!!!!!!!! After the initial scare of reading that each tomatillo plant needs a partner in crime to guarantee successful pollination, we found a small structure on our bush today that resembles an immature fruit! We were afraid that our lone tomatillo plant was growing uncontrollably large and stunting growth of an underlying pepper plant only to produce nothing edible of its own. But we may have been mistaken and our clever kiss strategy may have paid off -- we picked off some of the yellow blossoms, made them "kiss" the rest of the flowers still attached to the plant, and prayed for pollination. Who needs bees? Not these kids! Score one for the home team! Here is a picture of our little tomatillo fruitlet, next to what real harvested tomatillos are supposed to look like. We can't be sure, but it is possible that artificial insemination has worked for the garden.

We're not getting too cocky, though. Sadly, nearly all the beets and carrots have kicked the bucket. And the bunnies are still there, though we think the fox pee is probably keeping them somewhat at bay. The pumpkins look great, and the watermelons and cantaloupe are vining out to battle for common space. As per usual, the zucchini are producing giant monsters, and if we don't harvest them every day (or say, go away for the weekend), they churn out plentiful beasts.

Exhibit A:

Annie harvesting some zukes (if we can call cucumbers "cukes" why can't we call zucchini "zukes"?!).
The result:

There will be giants. And yes, that is a dollar -- WHAT?!

Another thing: this morning, we noticed the first ever okra blossoms! They have very pretty (and delicate) yellow flowers with purple centers. Yay for okra! At least there's one thing we don't have to worry about dying in the dryness and heat.

(Top) Okra blossom! So beautiful.
(Bottom) SUGAR BABY WATERMELON! Our babies are growing up so fast.

Our lovely friend Karina has asked about future plantings. Thanks for the posts, Karina! The garden misses you (and so do we). To answer your questions, tiny kale and swiss chard plants are in fact sprouting up in the greenhouse, along with more lettuce and cabbage that we will transplant into beds surrounded by chicken wire fences to keep out the bunnies. Also on the slate for fall planting are seed packets of: fennel, kohlrabi, pearl onions, scallions and two types of spinach! Nom nom nom, we'll post more about that when the ground starts to cool.

That's all we have for now! Until next time,

Peace, love, and veggies,
Annie and Brittany
MHC Student Garden Interns