Assassin Bug!

We are really lucky having all of these beneficial insects in our garden. This is what happens when you don't indiscriminately spray pesticides in your garden. You get a healthy ecosystem that polices itself. Check out the bean leaf beetle (Cerotoma trifurcata) lunch this assassin bug found. You can see the damage this garden pest does.

Blue Tomatoes and Mrs Clawfingers

These are OSU Blue tomatoes. They were developed by Jim Myers Ph.D, who holds the Baggett-Frazier Endowed Chair of Vegetable Breeding and Genetics in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. That's a mouthful. They are very good, according to Dara. They turn more of a dark purple almost black when exposed to direct sunlight.

I almost "picked" this green pole bean, then I noticed the segmented abdomen and realized I had found Mrs Bitey Clawfingers. Hopefully her and Mr Clawfingers will get busy this year and have tons of baby Clawfingers. 

One of ours?

Not really sure if this is one of our bees, but every time I see a honey bee in the garden I like to think so. Bees absolutely love onion flowers. If you ever see your onions going to flower let them go and enjoy all the beneficial insects they bring in. 

The bees are really filling up the hive. I can't wait till spring to try some of that honey!

Our first kohlrabi!

Dara cooked a kohlrabi casserole with the first ever kohlrabi to come out of the garden. It was delicious! I need to plant some more of these soon for a fall harvest.