In the Late Garden

The tomatoes have slowed down and are showing signs of blight but I'm still picking. This neat looking bug is a scorpion fly -- harmless but named for his fancy reproductive equipment (wonder what he calls it?) that curls up like a scorpion's tail. He's a scavenger who feeds on dead or disabled insects and is welcome in my garden. Sorry I didn't get a shot of his cute face -- he has a long proboscis and a somewhat bemused expression.

The potatoes we planted back in early April are ready to be dug and I grabbled out a few to have for dinner tomorrow night. It's always like a treasure hunt, pulling potatoes from the earth. Justin weed ate off the patch once the vines began to die -- now it's just a series of bare, mounded rows. But if you look close, you'll see the remains of the vines flat against the rocky soil. It's here you stick in your potato fork to dig for potato gold. (By the way, tomorrow is International Talk like a Pirate Day -- get ready!)

Sungold cherry tomatoes, Cherokee Purples, Romas, assorted peppers and a lone shitake -- these are a few of my favorite things!