Fourth of July

July 1 produced the first tomatoes of the season. Actually, there were three of them and none were very large, two being the 4th of July type (not much larger than a cherry tomato) and one being a cherry (Sweet 100). Reading today that June had 23 days of rain including the last three days of June and the first two days of July, I guess I should be very happy to have anything red at this time.

The potatoes have continued to produce very nicely, as we have had fresh potatoes almost on a daily basis. I have found that microwaving them for up to six minutes for 2-3 medium potatoes does a very nice job of cooking them just to the right consistency. Both the Yukon Gold and Norland Red have produced nice medium sized potatoes that are quite tasty.

Happy 4th of July. We had family over for a nice meal that included some of our homegrown lettuce, potatoes (potato salad) and tomatoes. The weather has finally turned for the better as temperatures are close to 80 degrees and the sun is out for more than a few moments.

Mold has taken hold on a couple of my tomato plants, most likely due to all the rain we have been having. I cut off most of the affected leaves and branches, but one 4th of July plant is pretty moldy at the base, so I am not sure what I will do with it.

I planted peas where I previously had potatoes and also planted another row of beans. The broccolli is finally getting ready to be harvested and some of the onions are looking quite good.

Tomorrow I begin painting the house, first washing it down and then working on the front, where there is little else to do before painting. It took a while to decide on the color, but we finally went with a little darker grey with a touch of green in it. The shutters will be a nice soft yellow. My daughter and her boyfriend will be helping out as I no longer want to do too much second story work. We did get all the shutters off the other day and cut down some of the larger branches from the Apple tree that was in the way.