Honey Bear Squash is a type of small acorn squash that I’m growing for the first time.

Long before digital cameras and the internet, I had a friend named John who used to tease me about loving my baby vegetables so much that I should photograph them and start carrying the photos around in my wallet, just like people carry pictures of their kids and grandkids.  Of course now I can post those baby vegetable photos on my blog and just show them to people on my phone, but what hasn’t changed is how excited I get when baby vegetables start appearing on the plants.  It seems the era of torrential rains may have finally ended in Utah and veggies are popping out everywhere.  

The top photo in this post is Honey Bear Squash, a type of small acorn squash that’s supposed to be extra flavorful.  I’m growing it as an experiment this year when I couldn’t find any Really Big Squash plants.  (Links to seed and plant purveyors in this post are just to show the type of plant, and not necessarily an endorsement of that site.) 
This sprinkler pipe in my garden beds is less than an inch in diameter, to give you an idea of how tiny these baby cucumbers are.  I find cucumbers to be rather temperamental until they’re established, so I’m always glad to see the first babies appear.

These are my beloved 8-Ball Zucchini, a plant I’ve grown for a few years now.   They taste like regular green zucchini, but the plants are round which makes them perfect for Grilled Zucchini, Stuffed Zucchini, or even Grilled Zucchini Pizza.
Of course, you always need to plant more zucchini than you really need, so I also have regular baby zucchini appearing.

And this is Yellow Straightneck Squash, which I combine with the regular zucchini and make my family’s favorite zucchini dish,  “Creamed” Zucchini.

This year I’m growing onions for the first time, thanks to my brother-in-law Clayton who gave me onion starts.  It’s really fun watching the onions starting to form.

Of course radishes are always the first baby plant to appear, and I’ve eaten some radishes from the garden already.  I need to pull a bunch of them this weekend, so some kind of salad with radishes will be on the menu.

There are no baby green beans showing yet, but I’m happy with how my beans came up.  (I wasn’t sure if the soaker hoses would work as well for germinating seeds as the overhead sprinklers I had before.)  This year I tried to be a little more moderate in planting beans, so I only have three short rows!

And finally, checking in on the Brandywine Tomatoes that I showed in the last garden update.  I’m still weeks away from the first ripe tomato, but one of them is getting a tiny bit of color!

You can see more garden updates from earlier this year or other years by using the tab for GARDENING at the top of the page.  If you’re the type who might carry photos of baby plants around in your wallet, be sure to let us know in the comments what baby vegetables are appearing in your garden!

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