End of Summer Update

Summer has ended and our harvests are plentiful. 

Odin Indra was born on August 28th on the island of Faial.  All went very well for mother and baby throughout labor and delivery.



Tomatoes from around the globe of all different shapes and sizes continue to feed us daily.  Our hot peppers are turning red, giving us a perfect mixture of sweetness with heat.  The Thai Basil is awesome with curry!



Sweet Leaf Basil and Eggplants complement our mediteranean cuisine.  Basil adds a nice aroma to the baby as well.



Butternut squashes with a dab of local butter hits the spot.



Pickle making season is here and we have ample cucumbers and hot peppers to brew up some wicked-tastey medleys.



Solanaceae is one of our favorite families of plants for a good reason. They grow so easily and taste so good.  Eggplants and tomatoes never get boring.

Summer Garden Update

This summer we have been blessed with fantastic Sunshine and ample rainfall to keep all the springs bubbling.
After a dismal Spring and lengthy winter, our gardens are making a fantastic return.

One of our tomato gardens this year has been planted with a German cultivar known as Strawberry Tomatoes. They are meaty and sweet, similiar to a watermelon. Their unique shape seems to keep Blossom End Rot from taking hold, as all the rain is diverted into a single point and allowed to fall free.



Our new retaining wall is planted with LemonGrass, BitterMelon and Congo WaterMelon.



Our Arugala Microgreens garden has Hungarian Wax Pepper and Japanese Eggplant interspersed for late summer harvesting.



Chinese Water Spinach is thriving in our new plot. First we built a stone wall and then backfilled it with compost and wood ash, afterwards we diverted a natural spring to keep a fresh supply of water in circulation.



Magnus and Soraya guard the Black Beauty Eggplant plot. In the distance can be seen the Hot Pepper patch.



Our ButterNut Squash are nearly ready for harvest. It is one of our favorite meals when combined with local Flores Butter and Honey.



More to come as the summer unfolds and time permits.

Autumn Equinox Harvest

These sweet and succulent melons were a surprise. We planted nine vines and did not see anything until one day a fruit rolled off the vine, ready to eat! It was our first year growing Cantaloupe and we were pleasantly pleased with the ease with which they grow.


Below is an assortment of Japanese Aubergines, Pickling Cucumbers, Chayotes, and Brandy Wine Tomatoes.

September Fruit Harvest

These are heirloom tomatoes from Germany, this is our first year to grow them. They are are earliest producers, giving us pounds of flesh. We are saving seeds from these tomatoes for next year.


Below is a Purple Bush Hybrid Aubergine. An early producer. Low and bushy, they are perfect for our windy island conditions.


An array of typical garden produce, picked every three days during July, August and September.

Storing the Sun for the Coming Winter

Sauerkraut is great with local sausage.



Tomato sauce with herbs.



Fermented Green Cherry Tomatoes.

More Organic Fruits and Veggies

The weather this summer has been perfect.

Our existing gardens are producing twice as much as last year. Our newly built gardens are in full swing as well.

It is a year of abundance!



Passion Fruit, Melon Pear, Long Beans, Lemongrass, and Basil.



Assortment of Heirloom tomatoes and some experimental hybrids of our own.



Green ones for pickling.



The hot peppers our now coming daily, along with all these lovely tomatoes and cucumbers.

Summer Harvest Season

Finally all the hours of preparation are paying off.

Our garden space has doubled since our first year here and now we are supporting our food needs entirely from our garden!

Long Beans


"Susan's Seeds" Tomato


"Golden Hubbard" Squash, encased in plastic to keep the young bunnies at bay.


Thai Hot Peppers

More Garden Photos

Although there are too many photos to post, here are a few more peeks into our gardens.

These strawberries are a little out of control! Yet the birds manage to find the berries before I do. I supppose the early birds do get all the goodies!

This is the first year we have tried to grow an open-pollinated tomato, not a fancy hybrid. Brandywine tomatoes are an heirloom type, from which we should be able to save seeds. This way we can stop supporting agribusiness and be more self-suficient.

It is a hot summer, so we try to have some refreshing salad as much as we can. The mesclun mixes are great. We also grow a type called Simpson's black seeded lettuce. They are more tasty than butter lettuces and the ants do not carry the seeds away before they germinate!

Pictured here are the bolted parts of a Chinese red leaf mustard. I cover the seed pods with a netting, the purple stuff, so the birds do not harvest the seeds first. We ate mustard leaves all fall, winter, through to early summer. The heat and more hours of sunlight cause them to bolt, or go to seed. We have been saving seed of this mustard for two years now. They are a true treat in the winter, especially with their spiciness similar to arugula or water cress, when not much else will grow in the open garden.

Early Summer Gardens

Tomato and Basil Garden, with a few Jalapenos and Garlic to keep the baddies out.



Experimental Perennial Pepper garden. Already we have several plants making fruits.



Jerusalem Artichokes and Potatoes.



Roma Tomatoes for canning.