Friday, August 31, 2012

bless the farmers


I didn't grow it.  I didn't even pick it.  But look at what I can buy.
(and the plums are from Julia's tree!)

Thursday, August 30, 2012

small (sufficient) summer harvests





The sungolds taste good again, after an extended period of mushy thick-skinned strain after the 100 degree pickathon drought.  [sungold soup, turned sungold sauce for pizza, sungolds in salad, sungolds balanced on strips of bacon as Zelda ate them today]

The summer squash plants crawl and wilt, but they can't help but make fruit.  [garden bread, zucchini fritters, zucchini rice gratin] The north beds, which are the summer garden this year, are a thousand times (or maybe ten) healthier than last year, after their long sleep under a layered mulch, but still, I have my doubts.  Still, I have to water every day.

The lettuces in the back are bolting (grrr), so the whole crisper drawer is full of them.  [best salad yet=holly's dressing, chevre, cucumbers, tomato, beets, copious lettuce]  I never buy lettuce any more.  Either there's too much, or I'm relieved there's no more.

The romanos are just coming on [currently in the japanese curry with pork and noodles I made for Jeff's post-surgery meal], with some other pole beans behind them, and then some other ones.  I'm going to need a plan.

The cucumbers and Zelda are dead even.  They grow, she eats.  I love cucumber plants.  I love Zelda.

The mustard crop that I threw into bed #1 has predictably taken over and I am ripping it out and dumping it into the sink, and into the pan, and into everything I eat.  [eggs, black beans and chorizo, lentil soup, pasta, my mouth]  Along with the occasional tomato, a month of blue skies, half a melon a day, and a couple of cloves of garlic, young mustards are all it really takes, it turns out, to make a summer.  

Friday, August 10, 2012

fruit trees

 Considering that this is wrong with them, the apple trees are doing rather well.  

Last year, with the ants and all, and that bad thing I did with the string, I just removed all the blossoms.
This year, Jeff cluster pruned back to a single apple per.  And there are still a lot!  And, actually, lots of them are looking pretty clean.  But the apples, and leaves, near the ground especially, have this.


No, I don't know what it is.  APPLE SCAB!


Or what to do about it.  WE HAVE TO TIDY UP!

But I have the internet on my side.

Ta da.