Calendula & Zucchini

This morning I harvested zucchini and calendula flowers in addition to the usual collards, lettuce, and herbs from the garden. The zucchini plant needs trimming because many of it's leaves seem to wither when they get tangled up with the other limbs of the zucchini plant. I used some twine to tie the tomato plants to their staking posts and trimmed their leaves back. There are many small green fruits appearing on most of the tomato plants. There are three cucumbers growing. The teepee trellis is working wonderfully so far for the two cucumber plants that are climbing it. Occasionally I have to move them away from the neighboring tomato stakes and tie the cucumber vine to the teepee. I haven't seen any peppers yet and I'm looking forward to trying some from the seed grown plants. We are experiencing some high temperatures (mid 90s) today and I'm hoping we get the rain tonight and tomorrow the weathermen have been promising.

Clockwise from the top: Calendula flowers, Collard greens, Zucchini, Lettuce, Nasturtium flowers & leaves, Parsley, Sage, Lovage, Basil, & Thyme.

I'm planning to use the calendula petals (top of picture) as a garnish for food since they are edible. They don't have much flavor but they do have a pretty burnt orange color to them. I'm also interested in using them in rice dishes to see if they impart their color. The nasturtium flowers (bottom of picture) are pretty topping an omelete in the morning and add a spicy flavor. I've also used the nasturtium leaves (zesty flavor) inside an omelete usually accompanied by swiss chard and/or collard greens and of course cheese.