For Jerry and Ann E

For different reasons, this photo essay of my garden is for Ann E and Jerry.  One is a welcome home and one is a happy birthday!  For you, I love you!

Look close and you can see me seeing you in the reflection.

Prune plums almost ready to pick.

A volunteer zinnia and happy am I.

Bountiful tomatoes...

And for the autumn garden:

And my happy winter squash

Love you!

And it is Sunday again!

Love Sunday!  Is it because of a Monday through Friday routine since kindergarten? Is Saturday a day to go wild and Sunday a day to muse, be calm, and be part of my home?  Maybe so, although "go wild" has a much different meaning now than it did at 20!

So, first, the Galeux d'eysines this weekend.  The vines are winding down and starting their last days.  We are soon going to be tasting this beautiful squash. The photos are dark because I took this shot shortly after dawn.

An this is the tomato haul today, plum, slicing, cherry and salad types.  The plum type are San Marzano and are in the oven as I write.  I slice them in half, remove the seeds, place on a baking sheet and sprinkle on olive oil.  I roast them at 350 degrees till soft and tinged with roasted juice.  After they cool I process either chunky or to sauce and freeze in quart freezer bags for the winter.  That's it. The best tomato base anywhere!

One year I sprinkled chopped garlic and thyme before roasting but decided that though delicious I didn't want all my tomatoes to have this flavoring.  And having some herbed and some not is a bother. It is easier to just pull out a bag of sauce from the freezer and then season then it is to rummage around in the freezer for the herbed or plain.

And one last photo, the sun's rays taken from the train platform on Thursday morning!

Summertime! August

Late summer is the time of bounty.  And I am harvesting beautiful zucchini and delicious tomatoes. They have been my best performers so far.  But the Galeux d'eysines are coming!

     "C. maxima 105 days. An elegant French heirloom with an appropriately elegant sounding name. Magnifique! This stunning squash has beautiful salmon-peach colored skin covered with peanut shell-like warts caused by sugar in the skin. Traditionally used in France for soups and sauces, when cooked, the sweet, orange flesh is as smooth as velvet. Each flattened squash weighs 10-15 pounds and can store for up to 6 months. Definitely a show stopper in the garden or on the table."

But, and isn't there always a "but"?   My busy season at work is late June to early August so the garden can suffer.  The garden is my sanity and sanctuary during this time but hot days, cooler nights and watering don't always sync up. 

Take the Galeux d'eysines; I have five beautiful squash. I really have enough for my family of two but hoped for enough to give away.  The vines grew long and lush enough to support ten.  I had ten tiny ones once but the watering inconsistencies brought me down to the five.  Alas, I'm not going to be giving away a lot of gorgeous warty squash. 

Writing of warts, the first are coming on board.

The zucchini are very happy but I have two different varieties from the same packet.  They are similar, and they are similar to the plants of latter summers. But they are different.  The variablility of heirlooms? The crap shoot of open pollination?  Now, these are delicious. Some of the most delicious zucchini ever. This one is prolific.  This squash, although almost a foot long, is just perfect tender with almost no seeds yet.

And this is the sister plant.  Less prolific, smaller overall, fruit not as lengthy or dark, and the leaves themselves are more flat and smaller.

No matter. I will probably be growing these again next  year, they taste so wonderful.

How fast they grow

The winter squash are incredible!  I did have a mishap a week or so ago during the heat wave. I misjudged the evaporation rate and over watered.  The tiny new squash drowned and are falling off.  Thoae out of infancy are still growing at a rapid rate.

This the first photo and last Saturday's.  I noticed this morning that it's color is beginning to deepen.