That is a green globe artichoke in its second year. I’ve already harvested six artichokes from it since taking this picture. The tree is an apple. I have no idea what kind. We bought this house a year ago and last year it produced one sad apple. This year it is covered. I hope to can them. We shall see.
My kids picking peas…
That is cool! I’ve never thought about how artichokes grow! I hope your apple tree does well. We’ve got a big old one here. It produces a lot, but unfortunately, they are all infested with coddling moth worms. 
We put moth traps up in the tree last year, but the dumb dog tore them down! 
This looks fabulous! I can’t wait to see the veggies!
I’m loving all the veggie gardens! Here are mine–container gardening–beefsteak, big boy and Cherokee tomatoes, gypsy and banana peppers, and three types of garden beans…plus now hydrangeas and asiatic lilies lol
Here’s a more current pic of my veggie patch:
From front to back
I love seeing everyone’s garden! I harvested the first 6 strawberries and 2 radishes today and they were gone before I thought of taking a picture. But the strawberries were soooooo good, big and red and very sweet!
I did manage to get these pictures the other day. But yeah, ours disappear too. My kids gobble them down quickly. Most never make it into the house. lol
These look so good!!!
They are small but amazingly sweet!
Time for a little update:
Remember that tiny little grape from the beginning of the thread? It’s more than 2 meters high now!
It looks like we don’t eat any kind of lettuce, but in fact we eat a lot of it and the lettuce grows faster than we can eat it! It turns out radishes are easy to grow - I’ve eaten nearly all the radishes from the first bed, and now the radishes from the second bed are ready to eat! I had no idea that mr Imma didn’t like them so there’s about 20 radishes the size of ping pong balls left for me. I’m starting to think about autumn/winter now, in a couple of weeks I’m sowing kale and spinach. There’s endive in the first bed and I’m also going to sow it in the second.
I’ve had bad luck with beans but everything else seems to grow pretty much by itself, even if I have to remove about 20 snails a day.
We are eating peas (almost done) beans, cucumbers, squash, beets, kholrabi, okra, peppers, all kinds of lettuce and greens (kale, swiss chard, chinese greens, and more). Carrots are almost ready, tomatoes are thinking about getting red, eggplants are slow, and the potatoes and sweet potatoes are quietly making baby potatoes.
I love summer!
Does anyone have a good recipe for pickled beets? I’ve found a lot of recipes online but I’d rather have a recipe that others have succesfully used.
I have 2 that I use- one with cumin and cloves (This one is my favorite and it was actually the recipe that got me to like pickled beets) and one with ginger. If you want either one, I can dig them out and send them. I don’t think I can post them because they came out of a cookbook.
But, the same author (Marisa McClellan, author of Food in Jars) has these two on her website, but I haven’t tried them:
I think I may try the recipe with honey! Mr Imma is not a fan of ginger but he loves honey. I have never had pickled beets before, I don’t think those are common in my country. We love anything pickled though.
I love to roast beets and toss them with blue cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette.
Oooh that sounds nice! I have about 20 of them that I want to harvest this weekend. So maybe I’ll try that recipe too!
Let me know what you think. If they’re good, I can add that recipe into my rotation. And good call on avoiding the one with ginger- it’s definitely not a mild ginger flavor! I think, of the 2 recipes I’ve tried, I like the one with cumin & cloves better.
I am interested in the cumin and clove recipe if you’re sharing. 
Pickled beets with honey! Test batch because Mr Imma reminded me of a large batch of terribly sour pickles we made years ago.
Our garden takes up most of the back yard, but we don’t plant an over abundance of too many things. Mostly we eat as it grows and we do make spaghetti sauce from our tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, basil, oregano, and a few other “aw, just toss it in the pot” veggies. PS: you can hide anything in spaghetti sauce…even the dreaded zuchini!
I love cucumbers and have made pickles in the past, but usually we just eat. I do make refrigerator cucumbers and onions, something my mom made every summer…most the summer long. Slice cucumbers and some onions, add a bit of salt and pepper. Pour about a 1 to 3 or 1 to 4 ratio (to taste) of vinegar to water over them in a glass bowl, seal and stick in the fridge. Wait a few hours or overnight and eat with everything. I add more cukes and onions as we empty the bowl and start a new batch every few days to keep things fresh. Easy and yum. I take these to picnics, back when we had picnics, and everyone seems to like them. You can see the fresh cukes I just added on top.
