Garden party

Been trying to clean out the freezer recently. In my rush to leave town on vacation, I stuffed everything from the fridge section into the freezer section. I guess I hadn't looked in there since I got back. And now I realize there's no room for anything else - like ice cream. Anyway, had leftover mac and cheese (from Jill) with pulled chicken (from Jill's b-day party - Zocalo) and beans (from the garden) the other day. It wasn't bad:


Speaking of which, while I was picking beans, I noticed that I have a nasty aphid problem in the back garden. That and some fungus has been wreaking havoc with my pumpkins and gherkins (the beans seem unaffected). I pulled up a bunch of both to stop the spread of the bugs and fungus. Hmmm... I may have been a little overzealous in my eradication:


Oh, well. This is what I have left - a couple of softball sized pumpkins and an over-sized gherkin, along with a bunch of smaller ones:




A bright spot in all this is that I discovered I had basil plants buried under all those broad leaves: