Harvest notes
I don't have a lot of time for blogging lately, or gardening either, for that matter. I was gone much of the summer either on G's adventure or to Maine (either to clean or for a brief vacation) and my gardens and yards are in a state of neglect at home. (I've gardened the office building, I've gardened the cottage, I just can't do all three.)
So when I say I have a scarce harvest it's pretty poor. Some potatoes, a few heads of garlic, a couple of tomatoes, a couple of summer squash. An early freeze killed all the peaches and nearly all of the apples.
But I do have three stand-out crops this fall: the grapes were heavy and delicious a couple of weeks ago. They taste so intensely grapey that its almost a parody of grape jam. The chestnut trees are heavy with nuts, hanging ominously in the top branches, waiting to make the ground impassible beneath them.
And then there's the total surprise crop, the crop that I never before tasted...
The hardy kiwis came in! They fooled me because they don't ever turn a different color: they just stay the same unripe green of an unripe apple or an unripe grape. But they get softer, and perhaps a hint of yellow if you squint. They are the size of very large green grapes, sort of stadium-shaped. They have the same taste as the sort of kiwis you find in grocery stores. They are ripe now.
I planted them how many years ago? Eight? Nine (ETA: fall of 2007). This is the first time I've gotten to eat them.
So when I say I have a scarce harvest it's pretty poor. Some potatoes, a few heads of garlic, a couple of tomatoes, a couple of summer squash. An early freeze killed all the peaches and nearly all of the apples.
But I do have three stand-out crops this fall: the grapes were heavy and delicious a couple of weeks ago. They taste so intensely grapey that its almost a parody of grape jam. The chestnut trees are heavy with nuts, hanging ominously in the top branches, waiting to make the ground impassible beneath them.
And then there's the total surprise crop, the crop that I never before tasted...
The hardy kiwis came in! They fooled me because they don't ever turn a different color: they just stay the same unripe green of an unripe apple or an unripe grape. But they get softer, and perhaps a hint of yellow if you squint. They are the size of very large green grapes, sort of stadium-shaped. They have the same taste as the sort of kiwis you find in grocery stores. They are ripe now.
I planted them how many years ago? Eight? Nine (ETA: fall of 2007). This is the first time I've gotten to eat them.