It is such a comfort to see your names and posts again after my long absence. I hope you are all well and enjoying your gardens and preserving.

Miraculously decent weather here in the central US has given our garden a real boost this year. The only things that never came up were the sugar-snap peas... again. We just have to find another supplier for those. The zucchini type squashes got off to a somewhat rocky start due to those darn squash bugs. But we finally won out by meticulously hand picking them. Ugh, how I hate that. They were even laying their eggs on the underside of the row-cover (Agribon) we use, so I had to scrape them off into a jar of soapy water.. More on the undersides of the leaves. Lots of spiders; I think they eat some of the eggs or nymphs. Anyway, we use the row cover to tent earliest plantings of cukes and zucchini. Lashing bamboo poles, the DH builds a 4' high x 4' wide box and drapes the entire affair with a lightweight Agribon, down the entire 4' w. row. This helps to minimize the bugs and then later protects the plants from burning in the hot, mid-summer sun. Once the squash bugs are under control, we roll up the sides and just leave the top covered. We do not cover later plantings.

So far, the Ravens have done best this year. We planted Barq (lt. green) as well but these were very weird because at a thick enough diameter to pick, they are only about 4 or 5 inches long. They look kind of like green goose eggs. We had other types of Mediterranean squash in the past that were much better.

This week, I put up 4 quarts of refrigerator dills and 12 pints of bread & butter pickles. It's been a real bonanza for the "Fanfare" cucumbers. These are about 8" long, dark green, warty, and 1.5-2" in diam. They are more a production cuke, with most of them coming at once. Wow. Delicious too without tough skins. Marketmores and Divas going slow.

And yesterday I put up 7 quarts of pole beans--- Rattlesnake, Hilda romano, Fortex, long beans, Blue Lake and Kentucky Wonder (this one hasn't even bloomed yet). Next year, I would like to have some shelling beans, preferably pole types, and would love some suggestions as I have no experience with these other than black-eye peas which grow exceedingly well here. They are a bear to shell when still fresh but freeze well and are a dream to eat.