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Butterflies and Beans

We had a busy weekend so didn't get to the farmers market on Saturday or Sunday. I have some leftovers from last week to use up, and some things ready to harvest in the garden, so it was okay to skip a week. I'm not sure if it is due to the unusually wet spring or some other factor, but my neighbor and I have noticed an increase in the number of butterflies in our yards this year. It's been really fun to experience. As usual, I let some herbs flower for the butterflies and for our other neighbor's bees. And now that the purple cone flowers are in full bloom, the butterflies are flocking. 


Tomatoes are coming in nicely, but are mostly green still at this point. Same with the peppers. So the big harvest starting now, that should last for a few months, is the green beans. I picked enough last night for a meal and am planning on pickling both dilly beans and spicy beans this year - and hoping to get at least one of those done this weekend, with maybe a little addition from the farmers market. Usually the Japanese beetles eat the bean leaves, but I haven't seen any this year. Again, not sure if this is due to our unusual weather, or maybe because we have the beans covered in hail netting. I feel like they could get through the netting if they really wanted to. Either way, it works for me!

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