Eggplant flower



 Here is a flower from the newer eggplant plant.  This is a regular eggplant rather than the Ichiban eggplant we have which is producing a TON of eggplant!  Notice the regular eggplant flower is white, while the Ichiban eggplant flower is purple.  Curiouser and curiouser...

(By the way, Ichiban eggplant tastes the same as regular eggplant, it's just not as fat.)

Bell peppers

We continue to harvest bell peppers weekly.  It is great to eat food that I know where it came from and I know that it's not loaded with a bunch of pesticides.  And I can just go outside and pick it rather than drive to the grocery store.  :)

Basil and eggplant

Dad's basil "tree" - whoa!

There are about 10 eggplants on the eggplant plant right now.  Love it!  And it is so easy to grow!

Aerogarden salad greens

Each week we are able to get 2-4 nice size bowls of salad from the Aerogarden.

This pic was taken right before last harvest

Eggplants

Lovely eggplant flower

The eggplant plant has been producing alot!  These are Ichiban eggplants.  I am going to buy more of these plants next year or save seeds.  I love eggplant and never get tired of eating it!  I bread it with Italian breadcrumbs, panfry it in oil, and dust it with coarse sea salt.  Delicious!

New cantaloupe

Welp, the cantaloupe did not make it.  The ants drilled hole into this one too.  I guess it's just simply not our crop.

We did plant some jack-o-lantern pumpkin seeds and hope to have those ready for Halloween.

Basil & peppers

Dad's basil "tree" - it loves its new pot!

Yellow bell pepper

Bell pepper

Tomatoes

Upside-down tomato plant gone wild!

These are heirloom Purple Cherokee Tomatoes

New cantaloupe

Well, the ants ate our last cantaloupe, but I found a new one!  It was hiding near the base of the corn stalk!  Woo hoo!

Corn

Check out the corn!

A little surprise

My boyfriend might be surprised to know that I planted a few more okra seeds due to the squash/cantaloupe attrition from heavy rains and overly wet soil.

Baby okra

Another baby okra

Here's the top bud of a very tall okra plant we have.

And here's one of those bud thingies opening up.

I don't know much about okra or how it grows, is harvested, is cooked, etc.  I have had deep-fried okra bites before and they taste like eggplant to me.  These are spineless okra, so they should be easy to harvest.  They are very resilient to heat and heavy rain.  A great crop for Florida.

There is another surprise seed that has sprouted - I wonder if he can guess what it is!

Salad greens

The salad greens are going crazy.  We planted these around June 18th in the Aerogarden.  We have already had 8 bowls of salad (4 harvests)!!  It is wonderful to just trim some salad whenever we feel like it!

Also the upside-down tomato is making a TON of little green cherry tomatoes.  Once they have turned red, we will have plenty for our salads.

The cool thing about salad greens is that you can instantly eat them.  No waiting for flowers, no waiting for fruit to turn color.  Just eat it all the time!

I thought it may turn brown on the edges where I trim it - nope!  It stays green and just grows and grows.

Also I have chives in there.  They are quite happy too.  :)

Green peppers

Green peppers!  We have already picked 5 or 6 medium-sized green peppers.  This saves us money because every time we would go to the grocery store, we would usually buy at least one or two green peppers.

Cantaloupe flowers

I love the cantaloupe flowers.  The often are found climbing the trellis. 

Okra

The okra has been unaffected by the massive amounts of rain and sun.  It's doing great!  What resilient plants!

If we have any more plant attrition (such as the jalapeno plant - R.I.P.), I think I will just replace them with okra seeds, which grow quite easily in the ground.

Cantaloupe

Well, the cantaloupe didn't make it.  It was doing so well, but ants drilled several holes into it to get to the sweet inside.  Then the pulp started leaking out the holes :(

Our first corn cob

Here is our first corn cob!  Back off, squirrels!

Raised bed / cantaloupe

The raised bed is suffering a bit from the effects of Tropical Storm Debby, which dumped rain for about a week.  Some of the plants, mainly the squash plants, drowned.

Here is a cantaloupe!  I placed it on sticks so it does not rot next to damp soil.

Another baby cantaloupe

Lettuce

We already harvested twice!

Salad greens

They sure grow fast!  The perfect complement to my tomato and pepper plants!  :)

Salad greens

Check out the chive!