The bee orchid Ophrys apifera seems to be a climate change winner. Since several years, they are spreading. Yesterday, I counted hundreds of them on a less than 100 m² - I haven’t seen so many of them in decades.
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beautiful carrots!
i can just smell that picture! mmmmm…
that will make a lovely dish, salad or soup!
again, i envy your garden.
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Blackberries are coming in, they have a pretty short window between ripe and turn to mush if you try and pick them… blueberries are getting there.
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Some of today’s pickings. Garlic, cabbage and romaine.
Steam juicer arrives tomorrow for the raspberries.
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Your garden is so impressive! Thanks for sharing it with us! Keep up the good work!
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Left a comment on your cool video 
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Today was… interesting. We had a freak windstorm a couple days ago out of nowhere, had some minor damage here and there. Until i got to the back orchard. A big walnut tree next door came down and smashed the fence, my golden delicious apple, breda giant medlar, pawpaw and peach trees. The apple is a total loss, the others i think i can save, but are very much not happy. We have a huge mess to clean up, but in the upside, i think i am going to get some really cool lumber for the price of a sore back, and several battery recharges.
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We are in the doldrums and the garden suffers, even with consistent drip watering. Something devoured the 3 pepper plants (rabbits? Can’t be deer) and something is up with the tomatoes. Not sure what but the leaves don’t look right and they just aren’t producing much.
The watermelons are happy though. First icebox picked today and it’s delicious. Saved some rind and trying a watermelon rind quick pickle using rice vinegar, soy sauce, salt (we use low sodium soy sauce), a few teaspoons of sugar, bit of sesame oil and a splash of mirin. We are out of fresh ginger, so we plopped some pickled ginger inside instead. If it doesn’t turn out, we’ll try something else. I didn’t like any of the white ppl recipes. They all called for cooking the rinds at a simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. I don’t want pickled watermelon rind mash.
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our peppers are in a growth stage, with all the summer squalls bringing afternoon showers, but the heat is keeping them from setting blooms. the peppers are small right now, but very hot!
we have this new planting, the “snake bean” (which is a gourd relative and not a bean or legume). it is wild in its vining growth and i fear we have released a new variant of kudzu. still no fruit.
our other beans have withered away,.
bad year for mangoes, very few stayed on the tree long enough to ripen (the wind/deadfall were pickled like your watermelon rinds.)
there is another crop of carambola (starfruit) coming in.
BUT, this year is decidedly lower yield than this time last year.
we have no bees.
the mosquito control, in battling the very real threat of dengue fever (already verified in the upper keys), has indiscriminately “collateral damage” murdered our pollinators.
so glad you at least got watermelon!! rind pickles are really yummy and your approach sounds very much like how i pickled the unripe, fallen mangoes.
my great grandmother used to make that very southern USian style of pickled watermelon rinds (but i understand you did not want to replicate that style 
) funny thing about her pickles - and i was really just talking to my papi about this - were a vibrant, neon green in color (like the pickle relish on a proper Chicago dog!) and intensely super sweet. loved those as a kid.
the pickle tray was a staple of any family gathering.
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I’m sorry about your bees 
we plant a lot of things mostly for the bees and make sure the water we provide is bee friendly. I understand trying to control dengue fever but I wish there was some other way.
If you liked your great grandmother’s, maybe it’s worth trying a few of the USian recipes. Hoping to have plenty of rind to experiment with. Didn’t want to try with store-bought. I know exactly what’s been on my own watermelons.
We were late getting the tomatoes and peppers into the ground this year. They shoulda been in at the ides of March to allow for maturity before the heat bakes the pollen so much they won’t set fruit. But it’s a hobby for us and life got in the way.
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Those look good, probably a bit sweeter than mine here (summer has been a letdown so far). I keep getting slightly unripe ones, as they are buried deep, and seem all black in the shade 
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First day today where there were more tomatoes than I could eat them as I picked them.
I planted a couple of autoflowers. It’s so much easier to grow these outside. I haven’t made up my mind if autoflowers yield as much in a season as normal feminized plants. The autoflowers are smaller but they mature so quickly, it seems like you can grow 2 plants in the time you can grow one normal one. Next year, I’m going to have to grow conventional plants to compare.
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Ok, so here is the GMO Purple tomato:
It’s a little unusual, really pretty purple color throughout, surprisingly sweet flavor, for all that there is no question you are eating a tomato, and vivid purple juice. I will have to see if yhe color holds to heat. I think it should. Then figure what best to do with it.
(Puts on mad scientist hat)
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Also, brought in wheat, barley and oats. Because of remodeling, moving and general chaos, i did not get my fall garden in last year and so did not plant my usual hard ted winter wheat. So i experimented with soft white spring wheat, understanding that it was not supposed to be as productive. Also, planted 100 sq ft patches of each. I would expect 7-8# of winter wheat from that. I got 2# of wheat, 3# of barley and 8# of oats. Apparently, for how i grow and in my zone, oats and winter wheat is the way to go. Good to know!
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