only two things that money can't buy
Back home after a whirlwind trip up to Boston, where there were lovely wedding braids and a crazy bike ride and seeing a few nice folks. It sure is a long drive up there. We don't have any more traveling scheduled for at least another month, which I am quite happy about.
Here at home, one of the most interesting things happening around here is food, because food is fun.
- Tomatoes: I started off the season with several dozen volunteer tomato plants in the garden, in the compost, and around the yard. In a bit of initial effort, transplanted a few, thinned out a bunch, and gave away a few once they got big enough. Then we left on a bunch of long weekend trips and I ignored everything for about a month, whereupon everything grew. A few weekends ago, I went out for several hours to tackle the jungle which used to be a garden, weeded a bunch, thinned out a few more plants which were too crowded or not interesting enough, and tied up the rest into cages or stakes as needed, then continued to ignore them for another couple weeks. I'm now down to about 10 tomato plants (not including a couple I left to grow in the compost, which, oddly enough, do not have any flowers on them, much less fruit), half of which are some form of cherry, the tallest of which is slightly taller than me, now, all of which have given a small handful of ripe fruits so far. I'm somewhat worried that all the rest of the green ones are going to ripen ALL AT ONCE and I'll be attacked by killer tomatoes, or at least buried under tasty ones. We'll have to be inventive. Interestingly, of the non-cherry plants, one of them appears to be a variety of plum tomato, which has not grown in my garden as long as I've lived here, nor is a kind I usually buy at the store. Mystery tomato!
- Pumpkin: Speaking of the compost, it has followed suit from last year and given several plants, two of which I transplanted to an otherwise unused piece of dirt, and one of which gave me a small pumpkin. I'm hoping I'll get another, although I'm not seeing any additional fruit yet. Perhaps I should try more than two next year, to have better chances of getting proper genders. Last year when I grew pumpkin, the plants eventually succumbed to what I recently identified as powdery mildew. This year when I started seeing the white spots before I even had one fully ripened pumpkin, I decided to take drastic action and actually DO some garden care, by which I mean I am occasionally spraying the leaves with milk and water. So far it seems to be keeping it from spreading.
- Onion: So I planted some green onions last year. I didn't get around to harvesting them, and forgot about them over winter. They survived, and kept growing. So I watched. They turned into GIANT GREEN ONIONS OF DOOM and got tall and grew these huge funky round blossom things on the ends. I still ignored them. Last week, I happened to glance down around that corner of the garden, and noticed there were these huge patches of baby grass that were coming... oh wait, that's not grass. I think I'll have a lot of onion soon. I still have a couple unexploded seed heads on the original ones, if anybody else wants to try sprinkling them around their garden...
- Herbs: I had a nice full herb garden this year, thanks to basil and thyme plants which took really well, and an oregano sprig I adopted from a neighbor, cilantro which reseeded from last year, and thyme that just doesn't go away. The cilantro bolted a long time ago, sadly, but I'm hoping will reseed again well. If only I could get the basil and thyme to last over winter, I'd be happier. I hate -buying- plants. Sheesh. There has been much pesto and rosemary bread made. If the basil will last long enough so that I can have lots of caprese, I'll be delighted.
- Fruit: The strawberries reached their peak in early June, and have been lazing around doing not much since. They're producing about two smoothies worth of fruit per week, which is nice, but not enough, so we've been supplementing with frozen. Smoothies are good, and somewhat ridiculously addictive when we have the ingredients on hand almost all the time. Making our own yogurt also helps to keep them pretty cheap and healthy. The blueberry bushes exploded in late June, so I sadly missed about half of their hurrah, but thanks to some friends' efforts, I got to enjoy nearly 3 pints of delicious blue. One apple tree has a small collection of small green apples on it, which I am looking forward to in a couple more months.
In some later entry i will wax on other thoughts about food, including the consumption of it. For now, I think this is it.
Here at home, one of the most interesting things happening around here is food, because food is fun.
- Tomatoes: I started off the season with several dozen volunteer tomato plants in the garden, in the compost, and around the yard. In a bit of initial effort, transplanted a few, thinned out a bunch, and gave away a few once they got big enough. Then we left on a bunch of long weekend trips and I ignored everything for about a month, whereupon everything grew. A few weekends ago, I went out for several hours to tackle the jungle which used to be a garden, weeded a bunch, thinned out a few more plants which were too crowded or not interesting enough, and tied up the rest into cages or stakes as needed, then continued to ignore them for another couple weeks. I'm now down to about 10 tomato plants (not including a couple I left to grow in the compost, which, oddly enough, do not have any flowers on them, much less fruit), half of which are some form of cherry, the tallest of which is slightly taller than me, now, all of which have given a small handful of ripe fruits so far. I'm somewhat worried that all the rest of the green ones are going to ripen ALL AT ONCE and I'll be attacked by killer tomatoes, or at least buried under tasty ones. We'll have to be inventive. Interestingly, of the non-cherry plants, one of them appears to be a variety of plum tomato, which has not grown in my garden as long as I've lived here, nor is a kind I usually buy at the store. Mystery tomato!
- Pumpkin: Speaking of the compost, it has followed suit from last year and given several plants, two of which I transplanted to an otherwise unused piece of dirt, and one of which gave me a small pumpkin. I'm hoping I'll get another, although I'm not seeing any additional fruit yet. Perhaps I should try more than two next year, to have better chances of getting proper genders. Last year when I grew pumpkin, the plants eventually succumbed to what I recently identified as powdery mildew. This year when I started seeing the white spots before I even had one fully ripened pumpkin, I decided to take drastic action and actually DO some garden care, by which I mean I am occasionally spraying the leaves with milk and water. So far it seems to be keeping it from spreading.
- Onion: So I planted some green onions last year. I didn't get around to harvesting them, and forgot about them over winter. They survived, and kept growing. So I watched. They turned into GIANT GREEN ONIONS OF DOOM and got tall and grew these huge funky round blossom things on the ends. I still ignored them. Last week, I happened to glance down around that corner of the garden, and noticed there were these huge patches of baby grass that were coming... oh wait, that's not grass. I think I'll have a lot of onion soon. I still have a couple unexploded seed heads on the original ones, if anybody else wants to try sprinkling them around their garden...
- Herbs: I had a nice full herb garden this year, thanks to basil and thyme plants which took really well, and an oregano sprig I adopted from a neighbor, cilantro which reseeded from last year, and thyme that just doesn't go away. The cilantro bolted a long time ago, sadly, but I'm hoping will reseed again well. If only I could get the basil and thyme to last over winter, I'd be happier. I hate -buying- plants. Sheesh. There has been much pesto and rosemary bread made. If the basil will last long enough so that I can have lots of caprese, I'll be delighted.
- Fruit: The strawberries reached their peak in early June, and have been lazing around doing not much since. They're producing about two smoothies worth of fruit per week, which is nice, but not enough, so we've been supplementing with frozen. Smoothies are good, and somewhat ridiculously addictive when we have the ingredients on hand almost all the time. Making our own yogurt also helps to keep them pretty cheap and healthy. The blueberry bushes exploded in late June, so I sadly missed about half of their hurrah, but thanks to some friends' efforts, I got to enjoy nearly 3 pints of delicious blue. One apple tree has a small collection of small green apples on it, which I am looking forward to in a couple more months.
In some later entry i will wax on other thoughts about food, including the consumption of it. For now, I think this is it.