Summer is the growing season. Long warm/hot days and mild nights. Add a dose of rain or two followed by a sunny day and plants stretch toward the sky, direct energy to their fruit, and release the enzymes to ripen.
Not all at once. And a gardener needs to pay attention to see the day to day changes. Just go away for a few days. What do you return to?
A jungle of weeds competing with your vegetables? Large, hard beans? Carrots and beets pushing out of the ground? Cucumbers too large and hollow to pickle? Tomatoes red, ripe, and falling off the vine?
These fine fruits were captured by my camera during the first, blushing days of maturity. They looked different – dense and pure green – a few days ago. Now the promise of sweet and ripe is evident.
I’m still dressing in my red robes.