chocomouse
Fri. Jul 24th, 2026
I'm not 100% sold on the peas in a hanging basket idea! I planted late, and peas should be planted very early, when it's still too cold for most plants; they will survive a light frost. Germination was excellent, we'll see about actual product. All the berry crops seem to be wonderful in Vermont this year. I have blossoms on the beans, and will start a 2nd crop whenever this constant rain of the few days stops. I have quite a few tiny tomatoes on my Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, and quite a few little peppers on my New Ace peppers. I'm not sure how the Early Girls are doing, except the plants themselves are big and healthy. We had 4 days last week with temps 96-98* and very little rain for the past few weeks; in Vermont, we usually (used to) get maybe four days in the 90s spread out over the entire summer! Our plants suffered, even with regular deep watering.
Mike, if your raspberries were cut back last fall, they should be putting up new canes by now; ours are about 2 feet tall. We have 50ft of them that we mow down each fall, and they are ready to pick about the end of July; they continue to produce until frost. If you let last fall's new canes grow up, they will produce berries this summer, usually early-mid July in Vermont.
I sort of agree with Diane! I do not like spaghetti squash, not as a squash. I love it as fake, low-carb pasta! I treat it like spaghetti noodles - use marinara, pizza sauce/ingredients, alfredo sauce with veggies; most anything you would serve on pasta is also delicious on spaghetti squash.
I never staked my potatoes; they didn't grow tall stems such as tomatoes, peas, etc. I've never seen on any of the gardening blogs I read that gardeners are staking them. I just hoed up dirt around the stem of the plant, without disturbing the dirt that is just above the actual potatoe(s). I no longer grow potatoes.
And another photo - part of our 50 feet of cultivated blackberries. It's a beautiful, huge crop this year, compare to last year when we were hit with a freeze of 17* in May. I envy those of you picking black raspberries, but these will be delicious in August.
Photo of my latest experiment: snow peas growing in a hanging basket off the deck. Only a few so far, but plenty for salads.
Dinner last night was a stir fry, with some leftover bbq chicken, celery, carrots, sweet peppers, onions and a sort of Korean bulgogi sauce, on rice and with a green salad from the deck.
Perfect cheesecake, Joan! Not a crack in the top. I'm sure it will taste as good as it looks.
I had to make something for my husband to take to a potluck tonight. Luckily, I had about 2 dozen "Cowboy Cookies" in the freezer -- scooped and frozen, ready to bake. It took me about 45 minutes in the countertop oven. It was 98* here at the time, and I have avoided cooking or baking anything. We have one more day of upper 90s (the 3rd day in a row) and temps should be lower after that.
It's OK to be tired of making carrot cake - but I'd never be tired of eating it! Today I made a sheet cake from a box mix -- sad looking thing compared to one made from scratch. However, I needed to take some short-cuts. Tomorrow I'll cut it into chunks and make a berry trifle with lemon pudding, Cool Whip, raspberry cordial, and strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
Today I made a potato salad, a broccoli salad, and a cowboy salad. Tomorrow is Father's Day, and our daughter's 49th birthday, so we're having our usual family celebration with most of the extended family here for the afternoon.
My husband had tacos and I had a taco salad for dinner tonight.
No real cooking. But tuna salad on the onion-wild rice buns I made the other day.
OK, Joan, you've talked me into it. This is the 2nd one you've made in a few weeks, and I have carrot cake on my list, but not made it yet. Next week I will, I promise! I also have that same Tupperware (I think) cake holder, from many, many years ago. I use it for a lot of things, even turned upside down with the base as a lid.
I baked another tray of focaccia, with Penzey's Foxpoint and KAF's The Works sprinkled on top.
We had roasted chicken thighs, mashed potatoes, and salad.
I took this photo last summer. I have not seen Chippy yet this summer, but I'm betting it will be back once the cherry tomatoes on the deck are ripe.
