http://www.freshthemovie.com.

Take three minutes and watch this movie trailer.

There is a tree stump in my backyard that my children like to climb on and jump off of.  My solution?  Plant things in front of it.  So, we planted some giant sunflowers and I also added a few black beans to the mix to just see how they grew, a little experiment if you will.  If you think about it, all grains and legumes are seeds, plant them and they will grow (go figure).  Well, my black beans have matured and the kids and I picked them.  I was over the moon!  It was so satisfying to know how easy it was to satisfy a need.  We are bean eaters in this rowdy bunch and we are going to grow beans like mad next year!

They were a tiny plants, didn’t thrive too well because the sunflowers shaded them.  However, we picked all of these pods.

There they are!!!

You like that?  I like that!  I yielded about a quarter of a cup.  Not spectacular, but I have about ten pinto bean plants out in the garden that are thriving and reaching for the sky…this could get really exciting in about another month!

Paul picked a gaggle of produce the other day and I just uploaded them and they are beautiful!  So many colors, it would make the non-vegetable eater a vegetable eater.  Enjoy!

Paul said “Get the camera”, so I did and was thinking oh great, nice tomatoes.  Then we walked out into the garden and WHOA MOMMA!

HOLY HARVEST!

I’m so glad he took this picture of me bending over.  I’m inspecting my giant pumpkins, come buy one in October!

And a close up, you’re welcome.  I look pretty serious, must be a giant!

That’s okra you city slickers…looks appetizing doesn’t it?

Fresh corn and serrano peppers hanging out in the grass that needs to be mowed…I know, I know.

When I see this picture, I hear angels singing.

Michelle Obama, you should come over and check out our set-up.

That’s because I am…oh okra, sometimes I loathe you.

But, I really love eating you in my stir-fry’s, so I’ll have to get over myself not wanting to pick you all the time.  The nice thing about our okra now is that it’s 6 ft. tall, so all of the pods are at eye level, much easier to see.  Even though, you still get those foot long ones and wonder how on earth you missed it.

Weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks…..have passed and today was the day for the giant 25 lb. watermelons to come off of the vine!  It was very exciting and very delicious.  I would also like to add here that in the last month, I’ve probably eaten more watermelon than I ever have in my whole life!  I even ate a piece of cantaloupe today and liked it.  For those of you who don’t know, because why would you, cantaloupe was always on my “do not eat” list.

MELON MANIA!!!  Josh would toss them to me, out of the patch.  Now imagine my wimpy frame catching a 25 lb. watermelon and trying not to drop it.  It was like catching a load of bricks.

Proud farmers, Josh Woodhouse and Paul Chapracki.  They are some beautiful melons.  We ate some of the pale green skinned one today.  It is a Charleston Grey variety.  Josh’s grandpa grew fields of those in east Arkansas.  You can’t find varieties like that in the store you just have to know somebody who knows somebody who’s growing them.  The Charleston Grey we cut into today was probably the best melon I have ever tasted…and I was never much of a melon eater, that’s why I said I have probably eaten more in the last month than in my entire life.  YUMMY!

Here are some photos of the first of our watermelons to come off a few weekends ago, being enjoyed by friends and family.  They were called sugar babies and were about 10-12 lbs. a piece.

My children never wear pants…but they love watermelon!

They looked so nice, I put them on here twice.

Isaac and Adam enjoying some.  Adam is a melon eating machine!  I think he’s made of melon.

Meet Abby.  She is Adam’s sister, she also ate her weight in watermelon.

This is P.J.  As you can see, the watermelon was a hit.

Adam was probably a half a watermelon deep at this point.

Kids are so cute when they eat watermelon.  It’s like the ultimate summer pleasure.

I believe this is what you call “watermelon drunk”.

Seed spitting…because we’re in Arkansas you know.

When Paul harvested today, he picked 84.65 pounds of produce, not including the pumpkins!  We are keeping track of the poundage coming out, a final tally will come at the end of the season, whenever that may be.

It is eerily remenisant of fall today.  I was  just standing out by our corn, which is starting to dry out a bit.  As the wind blew through the stalks, they rustled, the air was dry.  Paul had just harvested a gaggle of produce, peppers of all colors, tomatoes which I will can tomorrow, cucumbers, zucchinis, pumpkins, oh my!

I know it’s only mid August and our produce is just starting to ripen, I can’t help but long for the fall, the big wind down.  I say big wind down, but I don’t mean it.  We have a line-up ready to be planted, like spinach, peas and lettuce.  I guess I’m longing for January.  Farming is a lot of work and it doesn’t stop, at least not until January, frozen ground, alright!

Peter, the rogue rooster that could, has joined our flock for the present.  I let him in the day after the hail storm.  He was standing by the chicken yard fence the next morning and it just felt right.  I don’t think we’ll keep him, but who knows.

Paul and I have put a small goal on our canning exploits ’09.  We set the bar at 60 quarts of canned tomatoes, double what we put up last year.  Now, you might think that sounds like a small number, why not 100 quarts Amanda?  Well, because…60 it is!  As of today we have 37 quarts, so…hooray.