I think One Way is trying to poison me (or Interesting volunteer)

The summer garden is looking beautiful and has resulted in an interesting find.

In the same spot as the cherry tomato from last summer, what I thought was a volunteer sprouted. It had some odd characteristics but it just screamed tomato family to me. So even though my suspicions were aroused by the white flowers, flatter leaves and interesting cluster of fruit, I kept it. It smelled like a tomato through and through.

Yesterday, some of the fruit ripened to a spooky black.

At the moment, I'm 99% certain it is Black Nightshade (a less deadly form of Deadly Nightshade) that is also known as Garden Huckleberry and can be used in jams and pies. There are theories that say nothing in it is toxic and theories that say cooking it will remove toxicity. All the same, I've sent this photo on to get it properly identified before making any jams.

So have you been naughty or nice this year? If you've been naughty, you may just end up with some Black Nightshade jam *evil grin* 

Beach visit

With Henry out of town, I've been stuck by myself. Oh, it isn't as awful as it sounds when you have a gazillion animals to keep you company!

Yesterday, we went to the beach and had a great time.




Ana got super sandy after rolling around in the sand and we went swimming together. Kit, who is scared of water, patiently waited for a shark to eat us while she was safely on the shore.

Street Family Farm harvests

Summer is nearly here and we have started harvesting from our spring/summer crops.

Cucumbers started coming in more than a week ago and we are getting at least one a day (from one plant ... and I have about six of them planted so we are going to be consumed by cukes here soon).

I got my first tomato blushing yesterday and picked it, and today another one started to blush so I'll probably pick it tomorrow.

Dorothy, who went into a brood for a record six weeks, came out of it and she and Rose are giving us two eggs a day.

I've also started getting some squash every other day. And the jalepenos are going full steam. I also harvested all of our red potatoes today (see pic? That's about 1/2 the harvest so it will last us a while).