Tomatoes

Charentais melon or cantaloupe

Yard-long Asian green beans – purple and green OR red cabbage

Cherry Tomatoes ‘Black Cherry,’ ‘Gold Nugget’ etc.

Farm fresh eggs

Apple ’Granny Smith’

Bell Pepper, Jalapeno, Hungarian Wax Pepper (hot), and Cayenne

Potatoes

Cucumber

Onion

The following passage is attributed to the 17th century French poet Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant, in reference to the Chanterais Melon. 

This melon is firm to the centre, with few seeds like grains of gold*. It is better than the beloved apricot, better than strawberries and cream, better than the Holy pear of Tours or the sweet green fig. Even the muscat grape I love is bitterness and muck compared to this divine melon.
O sweet grassy snake ,crawling on a green bed. It is Apollo's masterpiece. The brothels of Rouen will be free of the pox... tobacco smokers will have white teeth... I will forget my love's favours before I forget you-
O fleur de tous les fruits! O ravisant MELON!

Must be a good melon!

Hot and Dry Growing Conditions

The garden is suffering. Too hot. Too dry. I still have (or can get) enough produce to fill my orders, but I am not adding any new subscribers – they are all going on a waiting list. I may be bumping some of you to a standby list soon. If any of you are willing to volunteer to go to this status, let me know. Sometimes “veggie fatigue” starts in and you would like to take a break – this is a good time, and that might allow someone to remain on the list who has a real need or desire to keep getting the veggie deliveries. Call 870-653-3062 or send me an email at georgiaberry@yahoo.com.

The supply of veggies that are available will be decreasing for a while due to heat and drought conditions. In 2010, we made the last summer veggie delivery on July 19. I can already see a slight reduction in produce at the farmer’s markets, and I am having more and more difficulty in keeping enough moisture on my plants in certain areas of the garden – irrigation just does not entirely replace rain!

We are also seeing dramatically increased pressure from wildlife over this last week – deer and rabbits have virtually wiped out my stand of Asian Long-beans. These animals are suffering in the drought and looking for something fresh and well-hydrated to eat.

We will keep it up as long as possible...just letting you know what the trends are...