August is here in full blazing heat. I haven’t painted in a week and need to stretch more canvas panels. The garden, with a little weeding to give everything some air, is bountiful after all the rains of early spring into summer. I planted my tomatoes from seed and escaped the plight of most local farmers who lost their crop to Late Blight. Heirlooms from Jung Seed – like Mortgage Lifter, (or Radiator Charlie) Amish Paste, and the largest cherry tomatoes I’ve ever seen, are finally ripening. The beautiful green striped Costata Romanesca zucchini keep producing no matter how many vine borers find them and I have enough basil to keep a freezer full of pesto throughout the winter months.Â
I expanded the garden to include another plot; corn, cabbages and tomatoes are in this one. The taste of fresh picked sweet corn- do you all know what you’re missing by not having a home garden? You just can’t get that from the super-sized market. Mine don’t have any worms….yet. But the poor Liberty apple tree hasn’t fared as well. Next year I promise to spray for cedar rust and scab and take so much better care of them. I promise! The Dutchess bore just one or two fruits this year.
Most of my gardens are jumbles of intensively grown vegetables. They seem to like being close together. The basil is guarding the eggplant from the usual hordes of flea beetles, but it hasn’t yet fruited.Â
Not so great news for my local farmers market that I’ve neglected all season, but I’m rather proud of my own self sufficiency. There’s been no need to buy produce since May!
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Kabocha squash curing. Pies this fall!
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Real home-grown Silver Queen!
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Apples still looking like apples…
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Johnny’s Large Leaf Italian basil in the tomato and eggplant plots.
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Buddy, the neighbor cat who hangs in my yard- post chipmunk repast.
I can see why Buddy curls up out there close to all those beautiful vegetables and fruits. And chipmunks… now that we’ve enjoyed a summer of good ripe tomatoes, I’m not so jealous of yours. This does not hold true, though, for the corn. Wish I had a place to grow it.
Dig up the front yard!
What remarkable abundance! Even the image of green tomatoes sprouting in a tangle of vines energizes me. Eating them must be pure bliss. Seeing how much food even a small plot produces makes realize how badly our suburbs squander productive land. Grassy yards (which are a perverse echo of feudalism) are wasteful, and quite ugly when taken in context. Let’s replace them with xeriscaped refuges, family gardens, mini-wetlands and chicken coops!
Thanks for that! My mother recently harvested a garden full of tomatoes before the winter really set in, and I found myself the proud owner of two or five buckets worth! Of course I couldnt eat them all like that, but I did find a website full of lots more tomato recipes here. A website dedicated the topic!! Crazy what you can find on the internets these days!!