The Joy of Return

I've got lots of Argentina posts still in the works, but I devoted today to catching up in the garden, so I thought I would show a bit of what is happening in and coming out of the yard. When I left a few weeks ago, my pepper plants were setting fruit, I only had a few ripe tomatoes of a couple varieties, and the squash and melons were just getting started to have babies. Look at what is happening now.

This large red pot contains three baccatum peppers, Aji Panca (yellow fruited version) on the left, Dedo de Moca in the middle, and Bishop's Crown on the right.  Both the Aji Panca and the Bishop's Crown are covered with fruit, and the Dedo de Moca is just beginning to think about it.

Aji Panca is beginning to get larger fruit.

Bishop's Crown fruit is still small.  They're so cute, though.

I have a few more peppers in pots, but most of the rest of them are in the bed that you can see in the front right of the picture above, where I have Datil Sweet, Trinidad Perfume, Zavory, Chile Rallado, Red Ruffled, Piment de Barcelona, some no-name red pimentos, Chilhaucle, Poblano, Fish, a couple others I can't remember right now, and two purple tomatillos.

Here you can see a super-sweet Red Ruffled that I roasted for part of our dinner tonight.

Every type of tomato is ripening up now, including these huge, delicious Linnie's Oxhearts.  We ate this big bugger, over a pound, with garlic and basil tonight.

Lots of dry beans are now ready to be shelled. This is just over a cup of Indian Woman Yellow that I shelled this morning.  There is much more to come.

The groundcherries are sweetening up and falling on the ground, perfect to picking up and snacking on.  They store very well for a couple weeks.  I'm hoping I can shore up enough to use them in a way to celebrate their zesty sweetness.

The cucurbit bed has gone bonkers.

Boule d'Or melons are tangled up with Winter Luxury pumpkins.

The Seminole squash, a butternut relative and squash that deserves a blog post of its own someday soon, has fruit lying along the vine on the ground and hanging up high on trellises.

Another Winter Luxury Pie pumpkin hides behind a bounty of Uncle David's Dakota Dessert.

I have four Orangeglo watermelons peeking out from under their leaves.  At this point, each is about the size of two footballs.

This is my first year growing sunflowers, and I can't stop staring at them.  The variety is Titan.

As enchanting as the trip was, I missed my tomatoes. I'm glad to be back to see sunflower faces and swelling melons. Okay, now that I've admitted my tomato-homesickness, I'll get back to daily Argentine posts.

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If you'd like to see more harvest posts from around the world, join Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.