The days are getting shorter. A view of my backyard in the late afternoon light. Love those leek flower balls!

The golden hour, with leek flowers

Linking to Through My Lens Monday, Our World Tuesday, Tuesday’s Wordless Wednesday, Tuesday Treasures, Wordless Wednesday, My Corner of the World Wednesday 1, Thankful Thursday, Little Things Thursday, Skywatch Friday, Friday Bliss, Pink Saturday, Garden Affair Saturday, and Shadow Shot Sunday 2. Thanks so much for visiting here and hope to see you again soon. Please sign up at upper right for notifications of new posts.

If you have never eaten lemon cucumbers, poor you. They are delicious! They are called that because when you let them (over)ripen, they appear the size and shape of lemons, but still taste like regular cucumbers. As a public service announcement I offer the correct stage to pick them. They should have just a tiny hint of yellow starting. Select ones in the store at this color; do not buy if dark yellow. The inner seeds are hardly developed at all. So tender, sweet and crunchy! Rub off the little prickly things and you can even eat the skin at this stage, but I do peel them. Let’s hear it for backyard gardening!

Harvest of lemon cucumbers picked at the perfect time, the first Sungold cherry tomatoes, and some Blue Lake stringbeans

Linking to Through My Lens Monday1, Macro Monday, Our World Tuesday, Tuesday’s Wordless Wednesday, Tuesday Treasures, Wordless Wednesday, My Corner of the World Wednesday 1, Little Things Thursday, Friday Bliss, Pink Saturday, and All Seasons Sunday1. Thanks so much for visiting here and hope to see you again soon. Please sign up at upper right for notifications of new posts.

Lettuce doesn’t like too much hot weather, which will make it bolt (center part gets taller pretty quickly to set seed). If it bolts it becomes bitter and not very good to eat. If you harvest it as soon as you see it’s beginning to bolt, it will still be delicious. Try a leaf to see. If you have a lot of lettuce plants and want to extend your harvest time, it will last for weeks in the fridge IF you pull it out roots and all, shake and rinse off the dirt with a hose, shake off extra water, and put it in a plastic bag closed with a twist tie. You can eat fresh salads for weeks.

Different lettuces in the garden almost ready to harvest

Joining up with Our World Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Friday Greens, Photo Friday, Pink Saturday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, and Saturday Show Off. If only one photo shows on this page, please click on Sara’s Fave Photos Blog above to see a few more.

Took this photo of my red chard before the recent freeze. I’m afraid to go out there and see what’s left of it..

Red chard shows off its jewel colors in my garden earlier this week

Linking with Our World Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Ruby Tuesday 2, NF Catching the Light Monday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, My Romantic Home, and Saturday Show Off. Don’t forget to try a new category (see sidebar at right) or tag while you are here. Vegetables/Fruits, perhaps? Thanks!

Hope you are not getting tired of all these macro photos lately. This one is a leek plant in my garden. I love the way they look in the vegetable bed, very tall and sculptural with the big ball flowers—like the rest of the onion family. For eating, though, I think it’s best to remove the flower stems early and then harvest soon. Leeks sure are good in soups and such, I found out this spring. But do let at least a couple go to seed for future harvests.

Visit Today’s Flowers, Macro Flowers Saturday, Macro Monday, Macro Friday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Wordless Wednesday and Watery Wednesday for more photos with a theme. Memes are great! Do browse around here first if you have a minute, remembering that if only one photo below, clicking on the top Sara’s Fave Photos banner brings you to the complete blog.

Another post from the archives for Ruby Tuesday. This photo is one of my top faves, taken at a small town Northern California farmers market years ago. Hope you enjoy this depiction of abundance and the brilliant beauty of summer, which will come again! For more rubiness around the world, click HERE.