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Thursday, August 06, 2009
this turned into mostly a garden update
Twitter won't load and Facebook is a minefield of inscrutable "we're broken" errors. This is a sign, obviously. No, not a sign that I need to close the laptop and go do something, you ninny; it's a sign that I need to write a blog post instead. Sheesh. Do something?
I woke up this morning to delightfully chilly air, very rare in late summer, and the smell of dew on fields of dry grass, which is even rarer and made me think of autumn. We have a low-pressure system hovering over us today, and the weather is supposed to be beautifully uncharacteristic of August in the California foothills. For just this one day, our high is supposed to be IN THE SEVENTIES, and considering that last week our high was 107, I would say that yes, this makes the weather a bloggable topic.
Oh my goodness, that's the ugliest word I ever saw.
Fairtime is approaching and I have once again entered a bajillion things. I think I entered about ten photos and fifteen baked items and four preserved foods (the BLACKBERRIES this year, they are to DIE for) and a handful of knitted things, in addition to being the adult coordinator for C's 4-H club's feature booth. I have no idea what compelled me to sign up for that. It is so outside my comfort zone.
Blackberry jam, made from free blackberries.
the free blackberries. YUM OH MY GOSH.
Speaking of food that grows in the ground, and stuff, I haven't been a good garden blogger this year at all. Here is an update:
Tomatoes are doing REALLY REALLY WELL. I might actually be canning some soon. After an initial bout with blossom-end rot, we're getting LOTS of healthy, juicy, beautiful red tomatoes on the Sioux plants, which are definitely going to be my go-to tomato for the rest of my gardening life. The cherry tomatoes are also thriving, but the Illinois variety I tried because they were supposed to be prolific and early must not like our heat, I think. They're putting on a few tomatoes per bush but they're not very happy about it.
This is where I'd put a picture if I had a recent one but I don't, and if I went out to take one now I'd get all sidetracked and never finish this entry. So. Moving on.
Peppers are also doing well. I did pepperoncini again even though I swore I wouldn't, and this year I'm going to let them get completely ripe before I pick them. Pepperoncini I buy in the store (which I'll never do again because I have a lifetime supply in my pantry just from last year, and I'll have another lifetime supply after this year, I'm thinking, so I'll be set well into the afterlife) is yellow in the jars, so when my pepperoncini got yellow I thought they were ripe. Turns out, silly me, that this variety is ripe when it's red. So I'm going to allow myself to hope that it was this fact, and not my own inadequacy as a food preserver, that made last year's batch rather limp and squishy once they'd been processed, and I decided to give them another try this year. I'm also growing the same orange bell peppers I did last year -- we've been eating lots of those green but they haven't started changing color yet -- and some lovely long red peppers that are just starting to turn.
Squash is so-so. We had some early zucchino rampicante that was WONDERFUL and we LOVED it, and now it seems as though the new ones on those plants are getting... BLOSSOM-END ROT. I am not kidding. If it's not that it's some similar squash-ish thing. The ends just rot away. I'm so sad.
Unrotted zucchino rampicante. If we don't get any more healthy ones than these (and there are a few that look like they might make it), it will still have been worth it.
Regular zucchini is slow, but doing better now that I've decided to water it every day instead of every other day, and yellow squash is FINALLY going to give us something, if it doesn't shrivel up and die at the last moment like yellow squash sometimes tends to do early on.
My pumpkins and melons are very backward and behind and looking like they're not going to do anything, and that's mostly my fault, I think, because I planted them about three weeks later than I meant to because I was lazy about getting out there and getting all the weeds cut back.
Claire's stuff is doing wonderfully. We've eaten at least ten pounds of her potatoes -- from FOUR PLANTS; T has decided that potatoes will be our Survival Garden Staple for the rest of our natural lives -- and these aren't ordinary potatoes. She has two plants of blue potatoes, which are gorgeous and a conversation piece and oh by the way UNFATHOMABLY DELICIOUS. We are hoping they'll keep producing long enough that she can have a good fresh one to put in the fair.
She also has two plants of Russian fingerlings, which are yellow and hearty like Yukon Golds when you mash them, and also delicious in every other possible way you could ever conceive of cooking potatoes. Alas, no picture of those.
The ******* gophers ate all my beans. Grr. Next year: more raised beds.
Outside the garden, we have two apple trees. Last year they did nothing, and I assumed that they were useless like several of the other fruit trees that were here when we moved in, but I am so glad that T didn't listen to me and cut them down to make more garden space, because HOLY COW THE APPLES THIS YEAR. The trees are COVERED in lovely green apples whose cheeks are just starting to turn pink.
Free apples! I hope we can harvest them before the squirrels do. The deer have already kept the tree nicely trimmed up for us, and they come along to eat windfalls and stare longingly in at our garden, which makes me stare longingly at them thinking about nice tenderized chicken-fried venison steak with mashed blue potatoes and some rich brown gravy, and sliced tomatoes on the side.
I meant to tell you all about the roller skating and the school planning and the seven units I'm taking next semester which starts in ELEVEN DAYS OH MY GOSH but I can't now because Twitter is back up I have stuff to do outside. 'Bye!
Comments
It's always interesting to hear how your garden's doing. And those squash! I've never seen that type before. My grandfather grows yellow crookneck squash in his garden, though, and I've been thinking that maybe next year I'll give that a try. (Of course, Donald doesn't like squash, but I guess I can eat a lot of it myself.)
Posted by: Michael at August 6, 2009 11:43 AM
How lovely! I love garden success stories! I have found putting a shade cloth over tomatoes an effective way to shield them from the heat a little. Also, zucchinis LOVE water. The more the better, and you'll find you have enough to feed Africa. I have seen them grow several centimetres in a day. Everything else sounds so nice! I can't wait to have our own house so I can go nuts with a veggie garden.
Posted by: Valerie at August 6, 2009 07:34 PM
Oh! I almost forgot! THe Pioneer Woman has an AMAZING recipe for blackberry icecream that I would love to try but probably can't - I've never seen fresh blackberries here. Let me know if you do!
Posted by: Valerie at August 6, 2009 07:36 PM
