Well, the squash are definitely in. Wow, are we getting alot of squash right now, and unfortunately it's at a time where we're not really bumping into people to give away the extras to for some reason.
I love giving away veggies, it's a personal, unique gift, and something that most people seem to appreciate (though I guess I probably ought to rummage through their trash the next day to make sure).
You simply cannot beat a taste of a squash picked ten minutes ago. I cooked some squash last night for dinner, and waited until everything was ready before walking out to the garden to pick a few crooknecks for dinner. And I had at least a dozen sitting on the counter. Tomatoes too. And expecially corn when it comes in. Green beans are just fresher.
Just how long has it taken those foods to get from the vine to the store to your counter to your pot? Last night for the squash, less than ten minutes. Add some fresh basil from the garden, and freshness cannot be beat.
Gotta get out in the morning though ... the garden beckons. Definitely needs a good watering tomorrow, and I need to finally setup that corn grid to keep it from getting knocked down bu the next big storm. If I'm going to plant a pumpkin, tomorrow's the day for that too. And I've got a huge mess of bush beans to pick. And maybe a second 4x4 of corn. Maybe. It's 75 day corn, so would be ready by my birthday. Yum.
And for no particular reason other than it's the fourth of July and I'm so grateful to this country for all the freedoms that it as afforded me in life and in the garden, I just want to send out this electronic thank you to all who have sacrificed to make this possible.
Happy Fourth!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
And one Peanut
My daughter Stephanie is eight, and she's been helping out around the garden. About the time we'd gotten the main beds in and planted, she comes over to me one afternoon dangling the most mangled thing you'd ever seen - - one peanut plant.
We'd been feeding some raw peanuts I had to the squirrels and I guess they buried one in the mulch pile. Stephanie had found it and, thinking it a weed or something, ripped it out of the mulch. And not too kindly at that. Most of the foliage was shredded, and the roots consisted of a single peanut in the shell with a few of the roots still intact. I'm not sure if I could have done that much damage to it with a weed whacker.
"Daddy, can we plant it?"
What could I say? "Of course dear, we'll put it in this special square right over here", and of course that's what we did. I gave it an hour in ICU before the peanut Gods came to take it away to that happy peanut heaven, but amazingly it survives.
We'll see what the yield is on "One Peanut".
The next day, Stephanie pops back up: "Daddy, look at these onions I found ...".
Tragically, they died a mysterious death and were later discarded.
We'd been feeding some raw peanuts I had to the squirrels and I guess they buried one in the mulch pile. Stephanie had found it and, thinking it a weed or something, ripped it out of the mulch. And not too kindly at that. Most of the foliage was shredded, and the roots consisted of a single peanut in the shell with a few of the roots still intact. I'm not sure if I could have done that much damage to it with a weed whacker.
"Daddy, can we plant it?"
What could I say? "Of course dear, we'll put it in this special square right over here", and of course that's what we did. I gave it an hour in ICU before the peanut Gods came to take it away to that happy peanut heaven, but amazingly it survives.
We'll see what the yield is on "One Peanut".
The next day, Stephanie pops back up: "Daddy, look at these onions I found ...".
Tragically, they died a mysterious death and were later discarded.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Wow, it’s been a while since I posted. OK, so maybe the folly was just getting this thing started.
Gardening …
Anyway, the garden is growing beautifully. It’s been years since I’ve had one, and I had completely forgotten the pleasure of starting out with a bunch of seeds and ending up with baskets of food in their place. It’s really quite a satisfying experience.
I’ve also enjoyed the tranquility of the process. Yes, the digging and building that I’ve done this year have been WORK, but to finally see the whole coming together, well at least PHASE 1, as I like to think of it, is really great. It’s been a couple of months and I probably won’t plant anything more this summer except maybe to rotate in a new batch of beans, so I can settle down to the maintenance tasks instead – mainly just watering, weeding, and harvesting.
The tomatoes have been different this year for a number of reasons. First off, I’m not using cages. I’ve always used heavy duty round ones, and gotten the big bush tomato plants. This year I decided to just use 6inch square concrete mesh just 7 feet high and weave my tomatoes through the holes. It’s worked pretty well, The plants are flatter, so they seem to get really good air flow and are easy to examine for bugs and fungus. And at 6 in., I can reach through and grab anything on the other side. I think I’ll get to pick my first vine ripe tom today. Hope so. I’ve been looking forward to ditching the grocery store crap.
Squash – note to self (as if I didn’t already know) is that two plants per person for crookneck is A LOT of squash. A LOT A LOT A LOT. Something nice to give away though, and I enjoy sharing.
The bush beans are in. I’ve picked a couple of bags of the bush beans and am starting to get flowers on the pole beans. They should keep me in beans for the rest of the summer once they come in.
Okra – picked the first batch yesterday, and then didn’t even get to fry them up. What’s the point of 4 minute old okra that can’t be fried immediately. Guess I’ll have to do that for lunch. I think I’m going to trim my squash around the okra a bit to improve the okra yield. I’ve got too much squash anyway.
Strangely, my biggest and least anticipated problem with the veggies is not the veggies themselves, it’s our schedule. Everything seems to happen for our family around dinner time, which is traditionally when we’d be cooking. Daughters have ballet and soccer, I’ve got tennis. I guess I’m just going to have to start making the lunch meal the veggie cooking one, or eat a lot later in the evenings.
Goal for next post – pictures!
Gardening …
Anyway, the garden is growing beautifully. It’s been years since I’ve had one, and I had completely forgotten the pleasure of starting out with a bunch of seeds and ending up with baskets of food in their place. It’s really quite a satisfying experience.
I’ve also enjoyed the tranquility of the process. Yes, the digging and building that I’ve done this year have been WORK, but to finally see the whole coming together, well at least PHASE 1, as I like to think of it, is really great. It’s been a couple of months and I probably won’t plant anything more this summer except maybe to rotate in a new batch of beans, so I can settle down to the maintenance tasks instead – mainly just watering, weeding, and harvesting.
The tomatoes have been different this year for a number of reasons. First off, I’m not using cages. I’ve always used heavy duty round ones, and gotten the big bush tomato plants. This year I decided to just use 6inch square concrete mesh just 7 feet high and weave my tomatoes through the holes. It’s worked pretty well, The plants are flatter, so they seem to get really good air flow and are easy to examine for bugs and fungus. And at 6 in., I can reach through and grab anything on the other side. I think I’ll get to pick my first vine ripe tom today. Hope so. I’ve been looking forward to ditching the grocery store crap.
Squash – note to self (as if I didn’t already know) is that two plants per person for crookneck is A LOT of squash. A LOT A LOT A LOT. Something nice to give away though, and I enjoy sharing.
The bush beans are in. I’ve picked a couple of bags of the bush beans and am starting to get flowers on the pole beans. They should keep me in beans for the rest of the summer once they come in.
Okra – picked the first batch yesterday, and then didn’t even get to fry them up. What’s the point of 4 minute old okra that can’t be fried immediately. Guess I’ll have to do that for lunch. I think I’m going to trim my squash around the okra a bit to improve the okra yield. I’ve got too much squash anyway.
Strangely, my biggest and least anticipated problem with the veggies is not the veggies themselves, it’s our schedule. Everything seems to happen for our family around dinner time, which is traditionally when we’d be cooking. Daughters have ballet and soccer, I’ve got tennis. I guess I’m just going to have to start making the lunch meal the veggie cooking one, or eat a lot later in the evenings.
Goal for next post – pictures!
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