Well we are into late summer now. The plants are producing at their maximum capacities, with an abundance of fruit and vegetables being picked and processed. Another month and the plants will start to fade and cease providing the delicious offerings it has given us all summer. A few plants will continue to slowly grow into the cold weather, plucked from the ground just before the first frost. The harvesting days will turn to days dreaming of our 2024 garden.

But for now, we are once again house-bound, with air quality so bad that it is not recommended to go outside for more than a few minutes at a time. The apocalyptic season has arrived! It is the time where our plants don’t know what is going on and our mind and bodies struggle with being idle when we know that we should be busy biking, hiking, fishing, gardening and enjoying the summer. It is the absolute worst time of year, and the outlook for this Apocalyptic season is that it will be a long one.

Looking back, I have noted the horrid fire season at least 4 times…possibly more but with over 300 posts, it is hard to remember them all. I’m actually disappointed that I didn’t even notice the 300th post and just blew right past it. Anyways, looking back at my smokey summer posts, I realize my mentality about it has progressively gotten worse. It started up with cutsie titles like “Do you like your veggies smoked?” (2017), moving to a little more melancholy “Summer Blues” (2018), to novel disbelief “Mad Max is that you?” (2021), to morbid dramatic resignation “Reign of Fire?” (2021) until finally I have decided that none of it is a waning fad, but a full on reality with a slight tongue in cheek humour “Apocalypse Now – Late Summer Musings”.

It is an exhausting thing realizing that this “extreme” and “unique” weather patterns that are causing such devastation are not so unique or extreme anymore, but rather seem to be turning into the norm. Ugh. I don’t want this norm, but unfortunately, I think it is here to stay. The floods, then the fires, then the smoked out air, all of which wreak havoc all over, causing turmoil and hardships. No body tells you as you get older that sometimes things can become quite bleak and it becomes more challenging to find the silver linings, or positive thoughts among all the negative.

But I like to think I am a positive person, so despite the horrendous conditions and the provincial state of emergency as British Columbia once again burns, I am taking this time to cloister myself in my kitchen and process some of the amazing food that we are so lucky to grown in our backyard. If I can’t be outside enjoying the summer, I am going to bring a little piece of summer inside with me. All the delicious and fragrant fruits and vegetables!

Let’s back up a second. Over the last weekend, the weather was quite nice, despite 3 major fires burning close to our town. We had mostly clear skies and sunshine to burn away a bit of the melancholy that wildfire season brings. It’s hard not to think of all the people displaced or losing everything to these fires, so a sunny day can be a welcome sight. We took some time to do some of the season’s biggest harvests this year over the weekend.

My cousin (once removed) was here visiting from Germany for the last two weeks, and it turned out to be great. We saw a lot and got to do a lot of things. After she headed back home on Friday, Kurt and I decided to do a harvest. It took us multiple trips and about 6 large baskets overflowing to take all the food from the garden into the house. I don’t know that we have ever had that big of a harvest all in one day! It was amazing to see our kitchen full of food.

We immediately realized that we would like to give a lot of it away. It is just 2 of us, and although I do some preserving and storing for winter months, it is still too much food for just the 2 of us. So after washing and weighing (because I am a nerd and need to know how much we grow), we reached out to our neighbours and some family to see if they would like a box of goodies. No one turned us down and we were able to deliver a few boxes. We have actually been giving away a fair bit of food from the garden this year, which is what we had hoped to do with this large project.

On the last trip, I realized that the garden has once again changed so much, and it was time to take some photos. Luckily the skies were mostly clear, with the sun shining and just a hint of smoke in the distance. I would have breathed more deeply if I had known how bad the weather would be a short few days later. Here is what the garden is doing these days.

Our beets are very happy this year, with lots producing. I have started a second planting for a fall harvest because I am going through so many beets this year. I love how your tastes change over time. I hated beets as a kid, but I can’t get enough of them now. In addition, I am loving the beet greens thrown in salads or sauteed and added to veggie bowls. The landscaping fabric seems to be helping keep the leaves green and uneaten by pests, which is great for me.

I do think that next year, I will stick just to yellow and red beets and space them out a bit more. Though, I am having no problems this year growing gargantuan beets that are delicious!

I had almost lost hope in the butternut squash. Three years of trying to grow it and continually getting male flowers, I thought I was doomed once again this year to watch a healthy vine grow with no vegetables to show for it. But alas! I have 2 beautiful squash growing and we noticed a third staring. Luckily we are still early enough in the season that we should see those vegetables grow to full size for some fall soup enjoyment. Well…maybe not much soup. I am more likely to make some butternut squash mac n cheese as well as some roasted squash with a bunch of our other fall vegetables. Needless to say, the plant is looking good and I am finally going to get some butternut squash!

Yep, a giant empty space is pictured here. You can see irrigation (which has been closed) and some nice little holes where plants once were. This was to be my cabbage patch. Unfortunately for the first time ever, the ants have been quite the garden pest this year. They nipped all my cabbage from the base. I waited for them to leave, and tried re-planting, only to have the ants return!

I considered throwing some more seeds in toward the end of July with the hope of a fall harvest, but after 3 attempts at cabbage this spring, I decided to cut my loses, make some notes, and re-try next year.

The cantaloupe has been an absolute winner this year. Another plant I have tried and failed with a few times, I was determined this year to make it work. I jammed 5 seeds into the ground in close proximity to one another and all 5 flourished. I am not sure if it is because I have 5 vines intertwining that has made all the difference, but we are enjoying an abundance of cantaloupe. So much so, that we have had to give a bunch away because we can’t possibly eat it all! It is a great problem to have, with so many more melons growing for upcoming enjoyment. I would like to do a few more vining fruits like this to see what else we may enjoy. Some pumpkin and some watermelon perhaps.

The carrots were slow to start, slow to grow and in retrospect, should have had more of them planted. However, at this point in the season, they are all finally reaching a great size and we are regularly enjoying them. They have such a rich flavour out of the garden.

The great news this year is that we chose a space that is too hard for Basil to jump into, so we not had to fence it, and yet it is still safe from the little thief. We are rewarding her with some carrots of her own, which is another reason we need to plant more next year. Ideally, I would like to plant as soon as the ground is soft enough to dig the seeds in. Maybe an earlier start with mean an earlier harvest, Maybe we will even tent them with some plastic to help heat the soil and the seeds.

Another few plants I struggled with in the spring, the cauliflower and the broccoli. Both had to be replanted in the house due to a bad batch of seeds. Luckily I got them going, and was rewarded with some great vegetables. A few are on the small side, but still worth growing. Especially the broccoli with their little secondary shoots that keep giving all season.

I’m going to have to look into what to do differently with the brassica’s next year. See how I might protect them better, in order to get a better yield from them. They can definitely be a struggle from the seed growth to the white moth worms and more. Worth it though for when they do work out and you get to enjoy the fresh vegetables with a bit of hummus. Yum!

The celery this year is quite pitiful. Despite having more space than ever before, the plants are somewhat stunted and sad looking. They are just tiny stalks and don’t seem to be doing much. I definitely think it is time to switch up the variety for next year. The Tango just hasn’t done well the last 2 years.

We need the celery though because it goes in so many recipes that I enjoy, and it is just so convenient to have it in the garden. My cousin noted that it is like we have the produce section at a store growing in the yard. Which, I guess is fairly accurate based on how we harvested when she was staying here and making dinners.

The corn did well, and are happy plants, but I don’t know if we will bother with it again next year. If we do, I will have to do a lot of research about growing corn. Although we have gotten a good yield a few times, we always find the corn a little on the starchy side, despite trying different varieties. We want the nice and juicy, light corn. Ours is good, but it could be better.

We also don’t actually eat a lot of corn, and it does take up a good amount of space, so it might be nice to rotate in a different plant like some snap peas or beans for a while.

I never thought these were going to grow! Such a slow and finicky little vine to get going, but once it got moving, it grew and climbed fast. I have managed to harvest enough for at least one can of picked cucamelons. We will see how that turns out. I am not sure if the novelty of them is worth the time and effort. I may instead choose to replace it with an actual berry that is sweet.

It is a good cucumber year, with plenty developing and growing so that we are never waiting for a cucumber when needed. Another staple for the summer months, it has been nice to have a regular supply of them.

Already I know a few changes for next year though. No more trellis, they just don’t seem to like to climb. Also, once there is a good amount of vegetables, it tends to pull off the trellis anyways. With the landscaping fabric down, it helps with the cucumbers laying on the ground, so I am not so bothered to make them climb anymore.

I will however try a different variety again next year. I would like a proper straight english cucumber with little seeds and a long, slender shape. We will see how that goes.

The ground cherries have been fun. They do take up a lot of room, so I will have to decide if it is worth growing again. I like the little berries, but I don’t have to have them. That being said, I was able to make some ground cherry jam on the weekend, and it may have convinced. meto grwo it again next year. YUM!

Its a funny little plant, and I am thankful that it is grown over landscape fabric. The fruit is truly not ready until it drops to the ground. Picking it before results in under-ripe and not so tasty berries. Grabbing handfuls from the ground is quite an easy task, though you have to be careful not to bump the plant too often, otherwise more fruit falls, not always ripe.

The herb planter is wonderful! I love it being right outside the back door. It is tempting to bring it up to the deck, only steps away from the kitchen….but we don’t have irrigation up there and it would likely fry. Such a cute planter, with a good healthy growth of herb plants!

Our poor onions barely had a chance but are still hanging on. The potatoes unfortunately outgrew the area that we thought they would stay, smooshing the onions under the foliage. We peeled it back and harvested a few potatoes this last weekend in the hopes that the onions will continue to grow to a larger size. Only time will tell, but the few we have harvested have been a decent size despite growing under the potato plants.

Our pepper plants struggled in the spring to get going and grow to a good size. Luckily they have been producing a good amount of bell peppers despite their small size. The cayennes however have been tiny plants, and only just reached a size big enough to start flowering. I doubt we will see any peppers on those plants.

We underestimated the size of the potato plants. We have always grown them contained in a tower. Growing them in a garden bed is a while other thing! The plants got huge and just kept growing for the longest time. As you can see, the foliage is starting to look a little worse for the wear, which means harvesting season for the potatoes is coming soon. The few that we pulled last weekend were a good size, but could definitely get a lot bigger. We will see what we end up with when we do finally start pulling it.

The rhubarb is a happy plant. It has grown much larger than it used to be in it’s old place by the strawberry tower. We are constantly having to harvest from the strawberry side to stop it from pushing into the netting over the strawberry patch.

We need to advertise more that we have some rhubarb because we could definitely give away a lot more of this plant!

I love our strawberry patch. It felt like we were going overboard with 35 plants, but now I am so glad that we did. We have a bowl of strawberries coming off every other night. I have been able to give some away, freeze plenty for jam and also enjoy the fresh summer strawberries as a snack or part of breakfast. Nothing beats a strawberry picked from the garden. They are red all the way through, always sweet and never tart. It is what summer now tastes like.

We didn’t plant sunflowers this year, but from years past, we have a lot of volunteer plants that grow from seeds scattered throughout the yard. We have let a few of them thrive, and are now enjoying their beauty. Next year we will intentionally grow some again. Ideally the harvest blend, which had an abundance of flowers of varying colours of red, yellow and orange. It was like looking. at fall.

Once again it is a good year for tomatoes. The plants are tall, and producing lots of fruit. It is hard to keep up, but let me tell you, I will be shocked if we run out of salsa this winter!

A few of the romas are producing fruit with blossome end rot, which has been ok, but a bit of a challenge. I just cut it off when processing it, but now it is starting to rot before I can harvest them. Plus the tomatoes tend to be quite small. We will have to do some extra nutrients in next years plants.

Last but certainly not least, the zucchini. I almost didn’t grow it this year, but late in the spring decided to put a few plants in so that I could make some more zucchini relish. As you can see, it already has the white mildew powder that usually comes in the fall, which is all right since I have harvested enough to make my relish. The few more zucchini that I get before the plant stops producing will provide me with enough to make some loaves for the winter. I like to have a few frozen for quick thawing when company comes.

The garden is once again providing so much to us through healthy food and keeping our minds and bodies busy enjoying the tending, harvesting and peace that a garden always brings.