Is there anything that proclaims summer better than blackberries and giant zucchini?

While I was out harvesting this morning, I moved a leaf on one of our four enormous zucchini plants and discovered this six-pounder! I do like to pick the squashes while they are smaller and have fewer seeds, but I somehow missed this giant. The squash and cucumber patch looks prehistoric with some twining of errant purple pole bean vines mixed in.

I grew just a few bush beans which ripen in stages and when sautéed are a great addition to our salads. The lettuces, Bronze Beauty and Prizehead, have kept us in gorgeous, crisp salads all spring and summer.

I picked the first five pounds of marionberries from our trellis. We’d been snacking on these berries occasionally, testing them for ripeness, but this was my first concerted effort at harvest. These are at their peak sweetness when they are deep purply black and give just a bit when gently squeezed. I’m hopeful that there will be berries for picking for way more than a week.

Little Marvel peas have been marvelous producers indeed, and this is my third harvest in the last couple of weeks. We’ve dined on peas galore, and I’ve frozen about four pounds. Shelling peas on the deck is a sweet way to spend an hour of summer.

Anyone who has shelled peas knows the joy of opening perfect pods containing gems! Alternately, there’s the disappointment of plump-looking pods containing tiny peas picked too soon or pods containing overgrown peas that have turned starchy and bitter.  Bleh.

Something that may proclaim summer the loudest:  Berry-stained fingers!