We’re finally getting a bit of relief from the furnace here in Central Missouri. It rained again last night. Another half inch or so. Total here since June 26 is close to 13 inches.
All of that water has been really bad for my tomato patch. Almost all of the slicer tomatoes are developing water cracks by the time they’re ready to pick. I went out in the deluge to pick after I got home from the salt mine yesterday, in hopes of salvaging something. I managed to find a couple dozen nice ones that hadn’t blown up. I plucked every tomato that was showing any color at all, and by the time I got home this afternoon there was another half bushel worth starting to turn red. I probably should have picked, but I needed to cut the grass, so that’s what I did. I’m going fishing on the middle part of the Osage River tomorrow, so the picking will wait until Sunday.
I’ve been getting a five gallon bucket full of cucumbers every other day for the last week or so. Between the cukes and tomatoes it looks like I’ll be delivering to the auction twice a week for the rest of the summer.
Good news and bad news in the kitchen garden. Watermelon, cantelope, and butternut squash are thriving with all of the moisture. They are loaded with blossoms and little baby melons. Mrs. Augie’s Russian cucumbers are starting to vine. Green beans are blooming like crazy. It won’t be long before they’re making beans. The pepper plants are absolutely fantastic this year. Best I’ve ever seen them since I made that garden eight years ago. They’re all waist high and loaded with peppers. The sweet corn, on the other hand, is probably doomed. I noticed this morning the first planting has come down with the smut. With all of the rain we’ve had I should have known to hit it with the Dipel dust as soon as it started tassling, but I didn’t. This is the first time out here that I’ve had a problem with the smut and I simply didn’t think to dust it. I think I’ll ask my buddy who runs the taco truck if he wants to add huitlacoche to the menu in a couple weeks. LOL
Well you are still way ahead of where we are. This has not been a very good year for us.