Sunny August Day Garden Pictures - for Paul Prebys

This morning broke out sunny, and got better.  I worked in the greenhouse and garden, before going to the memorial event in Anchorage for Alaska peace activist icon and savvy elder, Paul Prebys.   I was stirred by some of the surprising stories shared about Paul by his family, colleagues and friends. I imagine Paul is already organizing souls at his next destination, hoping to get them to help us out down here.  It was heartening to see the community hall at the Fairview Rec Center so full.

Above - ripening Stupice tomatoes.  60 tomatoes probably turned red or began that coloring today, in the sunshine and warmth of the greenhouse.  We probably have almost 1,000 tomatoes ripening - the best crop ever.

Below, a clump of Black Cherry tomatoes.  The first few I ate didn't seem to be very tasty, but they ripen into something more subtle and delicious.  I might enter some of these in the State Fair, as there are a lot of them, they are uniform in size, and look unique.

Slowly ripening Black from Tula tomatoes.  We will probably end up with about 70 of them.  They are very big, and are the most delicious tomato I've ever grown.  Here are images of fully ripened ones.

Green Zebra tomatoes.  Like Black from Tula, they ripen more slowly than Stupice or Black Cherry.  Green Zebra are supposed to be very tangy.  They were developed in the 1980s by Tom Wagner, a noted Washington state tomato cultivar and grower.  Unless more show up than we've yet seen, I won't be entering any of these at Palmer - we'll want to eat every one.

A huge zucchini, enjoying the sun.  Last year, it was so wet that most of our zucchini molded, at least partially.  This one probably weighs about three pounds.  Two are bigger (they were in shadows).  Alex once won 2nd prize at the State Fair for biggest yellow zucchini.  I think it weighed about 15 pounds.

Corn stalks and cobs, with silks wafting in the sunshine and slight breeze.

I picked these potatoes because their foliage was getting onto the driveway.  This was dug from about 26 inches of row.  This is looking like a bounty year for spuds.

This red cabbage is getting to be almost five feet across the outer leaves.  The head looks to be about seven or eight pounds, and it is growing rapidly.

These might be hard to see.  Two beets, both looking to weigh at least two pounds.  The biggest beets I've ever grown are in this patch.  The beets are Chioggia.