Summer harvest is in full swing! We have ripe tomatoes of all shapes and sizes ready to taste. A favorite is 'Candy Land' which bears heavy clusters of rich flavored, itty bitty little "currant" tomatoes and 'Nugget,' prolific, yellow-orange grape tomatoes that are candy-sweet.
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Brandywine and Nugget Tomatoes |  |
On the other end of the size spectrum, we have bright red and deep pink selections of delicious heirloom 'Brandywine.' Both are big, heavy fruits with meaty flesh, few seeds and great sweet/tart flavor.
Pumpkins are especially fun to grow from tiny seedlings into large-leaved vines with gorgeous fruits. We have 2 different varieties of giant pumpkins in trials now, looking for ones that get huge but keep their bright orange color.
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Blue Pumpkins and Giant Pumpkins
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We also have some blue colored pumpkins that are growing. They are looking very promising, with vivid grey-blue skins and bright orange, very thick flesh that has great eating quality. We are always looking for container vegetable varieties. This season we've been impressed by watermelon 'Mini Love' from a French breeder.
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Mini Love Container Watermelon
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The vines stays very compact and each one produces 2-4 fruits.
They are early to ripen into perfectly round, green 5-6 inch "personal size" watermelons with light green stripes. Best of all, flavor is extremely sweet with a very crisp texture.
Next season we will grow 'Mini Love' in our Vermont trial garden to see how it produces there.