It's a Jungle on Tortuga #43

It's been wild since so many vegetables started ripening. We can't get anymore into the refrigerator. We have bags of squash in the freezer and there are nine grocery bags more sitting in the kitchen waiting to be processed to freeze. I have no idea how many bags we've given away.

Some things require drying before storing. We have bushes of chamomile hanging in the garage, dill plants hanging where I normally hang clothes to dry in the laundry room and onions hanging in the lawn shed.

Frank has pickled cucumbers several times. We've yet to taste the results. In a couple of days, we'll open one of those first jars.

The apples and pears are getting close too. In fact, the pears might be ripe. They're red bartletts. You have to pick pears when still hard and then ripen so not as easy to figure out as other fruits and veggies. We picked a couple and now in a day or so we'll know if we should have.

We have rows and rows of peppers of all kinds. They should be coming ripe in the next few weeks. Frank and Christie will tackle those along with the tomatoes. And will we have tomatoes! We chose not to trim back plants like most growers tell you to do. Hey, we're experimenting. The main thing they said is the tomatoes will not be as large. We decided to see exactly what that meant. Our tomato quadrant is a jungle! There are hundreds of green tomatoes. I think I'll take a solo vacation far from the farm about the time they all turn red.