Category Archives: Garden

Still Producing

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While most of the garden is shutting down, the jalapeños are still producing fruit.

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I saw on Facebook that we had to buy jalapeños from the store to have poppers last year.  Not so this year.  I already have some hanging from string as they dry.

Unfortunately, there will be no parsnip harvest this year.  Sylvia planted them . . . twice.  Neither time did the seeds germinate.  Our freezer is nearly empty of parsnips.  We’ll miss them.  Butternut squash, even though we have a few dozen, doesn’t make up for that loss.

Garden Slowing

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Much to Sylvia’s delight, garden output is slowing.  Most of the zucchini and tomatoes are in their final stages of production.  Everything has done so well except for parsnips and carrots.  Neither germinated at the first planting.  (Perhaps we got some bad seed?)  Carrots did germinate at second planting, but are not yet ready for harvest.  Sad to say, no parsnips for this year.

Our garden looked like this last week:

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Compare that to a year earlier:

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Special Day

It was 55 years ago today that Sylvia and I made our vows to one another.  In some ways it seems a lifetime ago, and in others like it seems like it was only yesterday.

We are enjoying a quiet day.  This evening we’ll go to our favorite restaurant and have a scrumptious dinner.

More Garden Groceries

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Sylvia has begun to harvest potatoes.  Some of them look as pretty as the ones you see in the store.  Most of them don’t.

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I like these organic, home-grown potatoes better than the pretty ones in the grocery store.  Plus, you’ll not find one with its own built-in tripod there.

We have once again cut way back on meat consumption in favor of plant-based nutrition.  Okay, I’ll make an exception for bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers.

I don’t have pictures of our poppers.  Who wants to take pictures when they come out of the toaster oven?  Not me!  I want to eat them while they are warm.

Much to our relief, one of the zucchini plants has stopped producing.  The other two can follow soon.  Please!

Careless Words

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At times we can be careless and even reckless in our choice of words.  That point was driven home to me on Saturday.

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I was walking by the kitchen where Sylvia was at the counter preparing a meal.  She said, “I’m making poppers, do you want me to leave seeds in your jalapeños?”

Being a bit distracted, I responded, “What ever.”  Thus far, our peppers haven’t been that hot.  Sometimes I like a bit more fire.  How was I to know that the potency had increased?  I probably should have been a bit more careful in my choice of words.

Later at the table, Sylvia carefully selected three for me and took the other three for herself.  She took the first bite and observed that hers was a bit more spicy than usual.

On the first bite, I realized she was correct.  On the second bite, I retrieved a tissue as my sinuses began to clear.  (This has been a bad year for allergies and they’ve had me congested all summer.  Clearing the sinuses means welcome relief.)

As I was finishing the first popper, two more tissues joined the first one.  Soon, I reported, “One down two to go.”  Sylvia smiled at me.

After the third popper was gone, I discarded three tissues.  My sinuses were clear and it was easy to breathe through the nose.

Now it’s Monday afternoon and my sinuses are still clear.  That’s a good thing.  #ReadyForMore

Can You Beet This?

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Sylvia harvested beets the other day.  This one was a bit larger than the others.

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The beets are now in the oven.  Once they are baked, we’ll have some fresh beets and will probably can the rest of them.  We had beet greens with last evening’s meal.

We have fresh garden veggies each day.  Lots of tomatoes are included in each day’s harvest.  Fortunately, the zucchini has slowed its production.

The year of the garden continues.

Reaping

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The year of the garden continues . . .  The crops have been super abundant this year.  We are enjoying tomatoes.

160813a We are also enjoying onions.  They are quite large this year.

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Tomatoes and onions go well with jalapeños.  And together they are the major ingredients in salsa.  (We harvested the garlic some weeks ago.)

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Of course when you stuff them, wrap them in bacon and bake them, they make delicious poppers.  The peppers have particularly nice flavor this year. :food:

With fall coming on, we are looking forward to our butternut squash.  We are particularly fond of these, and we have plenty.

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The squash went crazy and ended up filling about half the garden.  This is only one corner of the plot.

Sylvia has some softball size beets and how do you take a picture of potatoes?  We’ll only find out later how good they are.  Okay, I’m tempted to burrow with my hands and get one now.

Garden Fresh

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Sylvia harvested beets.  I found them on the kitchen table.

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That is a quarter in the bottom center.  Like most of this year’s garden plants, we are seeing the best harvest ever.

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That big?  Really?  No, not really.  It’s called parallax.  That beet was three and a half inches diameter.  I say “was” because now it has been eaten.  Yes, it was yummy with a touch of butter, salt & pepper. #ReadyForMore

Jalapeño poppers for lunch today.  I’m ready. :food:

Harvest

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I’ve recently had some troubles posting to this blog.  The problems seem to be solved, so here goes.

My most recent post (a week ago) featured a photo of Sylvia in the garden.  She was harvesting zucchini.  A couple of days later, I harvested six zucchinis and two jalapeños.  Two days after that, Sylvia brought these in.

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We’ve been wanting some poppers, so a trip to the store for bacon was next.  We enjoyed immensely our first jalapeño poppers of the year.

A couple of days passed and Sylvia went out to the garden to “check on things.”  She was gone a long time.  When she did come back in, she brought these with her.

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She also had a plastic shopping bag half full of green beans, some broccoli, an onion, some beets, and a cabbage as big as your head.  That first coleslaw of the season was super good.

We had to prune the butternut squash vines before they took over the entire garden.  Could it be the 15 loads of manure that we put on the garden last fall?

As I look out the window I see day lilies in blossom.  Beside them, the large hosta is also in blossom and an American gold finch visits to check out the blooms.  An earlier visitor was a humming bird–always fun to watch.

 

Out in the Garden

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It was on June 27, that I last posted a pic of our veggie garden.  You should see it today.  Thanks to Sylvia’s efforts, it is flourishing.

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That is a zucchini in Sylvia’s right hand and those are the zucchini plants behind her.  We will have an abundance of these beautiful summer squashes,

Looks like were in for our best year of onions, beets and butternut squash (these three not visible in this pic).  Also the jalapeños are loaded and some are ready to harvest.