The garden hot. A brief context to set expectations.
The garden hot: Quick notes
August means dry, hot summer days and waning plants. But it also means harvesting all the goodies you worked so hard for. We’re picking produce and enjoying the bounty from the summer garden. Here’s some inspiration to keep you cool as you grow this season.
What’s Hot
Our favorite jalapeño-type pepper is the Fish Pepper, and heirloom popular in Southern dishes. The variegated leaves and stripes on the peppers make them interesting, and we like the flavor much more than jalapeños. 
Our dragon fruit is ripening. Watch this video to know when it’s ripe. Oh, and no, dragon fruit cactus doesn’t grow apples, it’s just a trick of the eye: the tree is right in front of the cactus. 
Home made pico de gallo is a favorite to make during summer. Find our recipe here. It’s only as hot as you make it. 
The kitchen is hot! Find our recipe for canned tomatoes in High Yield Small Space Organic Gardening. (We noticed a typo in the recipe, which says 1 pound = about 3 pints. It’s really 1 pound roma tomatoes = a little more than 1 pint.) 
Speaking of cooking jags! We found a recipe for the perfect pizza sauce from Milk Street. It’s worth the subscription for this one recipe. Absolute perfection! We used fresh Roma tomatoes, and cooked it longer to get the same results as canned tomatoes.
What’s Cool
Miniature White cucumbers do better than most cucs at Gardenerd HQ. What variety does best for you? 
Roman Candle tomatoes are yellow, which makes them so cool to grow and use in cooking. 
Red yard long beans are so unusual and easy to grow. They can get 3 feet long very quickly. 
Spaghetti squash starts to wander through pathways. Winter squashes make great ground covers to keep the soil cool. 
Even more cool than eating artichokes is letting them go to flower. Purple florets (the calatide) put on a beautiful show. 
Chocolate zucchini bread is cooling on a rack. Looking for ways to disguise summer squash? We’ve got you covered.
We hope you enjoy what’s hot in your own garden (even from inside the air conditioned house with a glass of lemonade). These are the good times. Let’s make the most of it before summer ends.
The garden hot comes up here to connect ideas for clarity.
A short mention of The garden hot helps readers follow the flow.
