Lately we’ve been harvesting in the garden in the morning, in the evening, in the sun, in the rain. We harvest throughout the day, whenever we’re making a meal and think of another garden ingredient we’d like to include. One day we’re harvesting our first cucumbers and a few days later we’re bringing in basket fulls. One day we’re eating every zucchini as soon as it’s picked and the next thing you know our kitchen table is getting covered in them. The changes in the garden happen so quickly.

Above was a morning harvest last week with chard, zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, arugula, cucumbers, and basil.

 The next day we brought in some of the same, along with celery, kale, collards, and broccoli greens.

 Oh yeah, and some mullein flowers too.

 The next harvest was more squash and cucumbers. Jeff planted a ton of different cucumber varieties this year. These ones are so interesting looking because they are so light colored.

More of all that goodness, plus some lettuce.

 We harvested two varieties of celery this year. One green and one red. It was the first time I had ever heard of red celery. We harvest a few stalks at a time and the plants just keep producing.

Our lettuce has slowed down. We have a fresh salad pretty much every day for lunch. Luckily the cucumbers and summer squash have been coming on right as the lettuce was slowing, so we’ve been chopping them up for our “salads” instead. Our lettuce starts are growing fast and soon we’ll have plenty of lettuce again. Jeff continually plants lettuce, to have it around as long as possible.

 Bracken wanted to help harvest the cucumbers, but some of them had “pokeys” on them. I grabbed a pair of gloves to harvest some (Jeff just uses his bare hands, he’s tougher than me.) Bracken went and grabbed a pair of socks out of the drawer and fashioned himself a pair of gloves. How clever!

 It was so cute watching his sock-hands harvesting cucumbers.

 He wasn’t about to miss out on all the fun of cucumber picking.

 Last week during one of our harvesting ventures in the garden, we found something unexpected: some puffball mushrooms!

 A big clump of them!

We were so excited.

 Jeff washed them off with a garden hose.

 Then he cut off the ends and washed them in the kitchen.

 He sauteed some in our scrambled eggs and some in soup. They were incredibly delicious.

 The next day? More squash and cukes, plus some parsley.

 And today? The sun came out again. We harvested some herbs and the rest of the garden is patiently waiting. (Along with Bracken, because as soon as I finish this post we are heading out to the garden for more harvesting.)

I admired these nasturtiums growing wildly.

 And the cucumbers growing wildly. Our garden looks like a cucumber jungle right now.

 We love seeing bees in the cucumber flowers!

So, those are some of our garden harvests lately. Harvests that we are so grateful for!

Are you growing anything? What’s been filling up your baskets these summer days?