Last night new helper friend!! And other things yesterday

A fine Toad hanging out in the raised beds! Eat those earwigs please!! (May already be doing so as I have not seen many lately.)
Tomatillos Verdes doing well, I think I have enough now to make salsa verde enough to can.
Took garden cucumber to work today for a snack with ranch dressing.
Not entirely sure but I think a Bombus impatiens bumblebee on a loofah gourd flower. There were at least two of these bumbles around.
Helper!

Foods

Garden green beans (blue lake bush) with tonight’s dinner.
Rice to go with tacos on weekend. Garden tomatoes.
Refried beans to go with tacos
Refried beans before any frying. Mostly black teparies, a few vaqueros. All the remaining from last year’s harvest.

Corn on the cob, third time’s the charm?

Yesterday morning I picked half a dozen sweet corns and Wes buttered them up and roasted them in foil. The front one we threw out because of too few kernels from incomplete pollination.
Steak and corn.
While taking the husks out to the compost pile, I was relieved to see that my mysteriously dying frostweed is resprouting at the base.
Steak, a roll, a baked potato, and corn. Very classic.
Everything buttered up extra. It was pretty good but nothing to write home about. First year I picked way too late (hard and rubbery), last year didn’t pollinate, so I’m counting this as a win.
After dinner, the Chef found this fine friend on the porch.
The stealthy bagworm (a moth caterpillar). So invisible in its natural habitat of Rubbermaid tub lid!
Here it was walking so you can see its head.

Harvest and pruning

Surprise! A loofah gourd I didn’t plant has already reached the top of the trellis.
Chard, mini bell peppers, and Chimayó peppers.
The Chef found a cutworm in the chard.
I found a big beautiful banana spider (Argiope) in the tomatoes while I harvested! I made sure not to bother her more.
I finally determined the zucchini plant was a total loss to squash vine borers. I also made an executive decision to not let the very thriving white currant tomato plant shade out the moon and stars watermelon or the salvia or the rosemary. There’s only one plant and it’s a monster! I got over 900 g this evening alone.
All tidy now. I hope the watermelon will do better now.
I came inside to find this beautiful meal prepared by the Chef. Greens are chard from the garden and the bell pepper topping is mini bell peppers sliced. Yum. Nice and cool after working in the heat and humidity.

Green beans and kohlrabi

Leftover hotpot style soup. The Chef also used venison from Paula and chard and kohlrabi leaves in eggrolls. Sauce for eggrolls was South Dakota honey from our esteemed visitor this week!

Afternoon and evening

Argiope spider. We call them banana spiders for the yellow but I think most people call them garden spiders.
Missouri fluttermill primrose in the rock/sedum garden continues to bloom!
Many tomatoes along with kohlrabi.
A caterpillar on cilantro. Maybe a cutworm? It looks familiar…
Uzbek golden carrots! Excited to try them… I harvested a bit early on two. Oops.
Wes made hot pot style soup. It contains chard, kohlrabi stem and leaves, green beans, sweet peppers, onions, and green onions.
A view of the spread. We have a vaccinated guest!!