Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Meeting

When I posted about our Dam 2 Dam hike over the Fourth of July holiday, I forgot to share a little incident that happened. On the evening when we hiked far up on the bluffs that overlook the Manistee River, we came upon a place known as "Far Away from the Maddening Crowd." Little did we know that an historic event was to happen on that knoll that night.

As I sat there reclined, stirring my lentils and rice over my alcohol cook stove, along came a tiny pink bear named Zamboni, a Keebler elf named Ken, and a voluptuous, beautiful woman named Abigail. Abigail was followed by her family and entourage who carried two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, sixty pounds of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs.

It had turned out, you see, that I had fallen through a time and space portal and found myself in the Old Testament era land of Carmel and at the meeting if Abigail and David. Fortunately Abigail had arrived before David, so I was not subject to the wrath of a scorned king and his army.

Instead, I watched as David and his knights (no relation to Ken, mind you) rode onto the scene. Ken babbled on with endless commentary as Zamboni road away on one of King David's most prized silver steeds.

David Meeting Abigail by Peter Paul Rubens (circa 1620)
as photoshopped by Andy Mytys
(circa July 2006).

Saturday, August 26, 2006

'Maters

To all you many people who track my blog, I have to apologize for not posting much of late. Too many late days at work and too little time in the garden, and I don't have the time or the content to post. But I am working up a new concept to take the place of the garden news that will be coming this fall. Stay tuned!

Late August is here and the thrill of fresh garden tomatoes has done what it usually does when you have hundreds of the fruits piling up in the fridge and more turning red on the vine. So when you can't keep up with that home-grown goodness, it's time to get the canning jars out.

As you can see by this basket full of San Marziano's, we have plenty of tomatoes to put up for the winter. This basket holds just the roma's from five plants. One plant had twenty-seven red tomatoes ready for picking a week ago, and I picked about the same number from that same plant today.

In additon to this beautiful basket of romas, we had a less attractive but much larger basket of standard red tomatoes (Super Sioux and Legend) from three plants here at home and six plants out at Perkins.

So far, we have a little more than twelve quarts put up. We'll be in good shape for the winter if we can pick and save enough to get another eight or so quarts. Long, dark, cold days are little easier to handle when you have some good pasta doused with last summer's tomatoes with some parmigiano reggiano shaved on top.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Corn

It's been a dry August so far. Knowing the corn would soon be ripe, I began watering the corn every other day last Sunday in an effort to get the kernel size up.

I picked the first ears tonight, and the effort seems to have paid off. In most of the ears, the kernels were big and juicy, although a little more starchy than I had hoped. I'm not sure if I waited a few days too long to pick, or if it's just the variety of seed I used.

The corn is not the only plant happy for the water. The zinnias are doing exceptionally well this summer with plenty of long-lasting blooms and very little mildew to date.

I did learn by observing my neighbor's zinnias that I may have been able to get larger blooms had I spaced the plants a little further apart. I guess I'll be a little more brutal when I thin seedlings next year.


The dry August also has the pumpkin and squash vines turning yellow and drying up. We already have some small, orange pumpkins, but we also have a few other bigger ones still growing on the vine. It's getting easier to count the squash, including these two young acorns that have a few more months to go.






Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Thinking About the Hills


I've been thinking about the hills a lot lately. In particular, I've been thinking of the mountains in New England.

Two thoughts have been running through my mind. The first is a growing obsession with doing a one-day Presidential Traverse. The Presidential Traverse does not have a formal route, but typically includes tagging the summits of a half dozen or so of the high peaks. The traverse I am considering is 23 miles long and includes 9,050 feet of elevation gain. Once on the ridge, most of the hiking is across loose talus on an exposed ridge that includes Mount Washington, the highest peak in New England.

Now I just need to find a partner or two and make arrangements to be in New Hampshire in late June when the days are long. And I suppose I need to re-start my running routine that has slacked off this summer.

The second growing obsession is with winter peak bagging. A few weeks back, I sharpened my crampons. This morning I saw my boots sitting there patiently in the corner of the closet. The cool evening air tonight has me thinking about snow and winter wind.

I wonder what peaks should be on the list for this year. I wonder what other likeminded souls I might be able to talk into climbing a few mountains in winter.

Anyone feel like going climbing... or on a long summer walk?

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Colorful

Some nights are more colorful than others out at Perkins Garden. Tonight was one of the more colorful.

This year, August has brought along with it clear, blue skies with bold, fluffy clouds. The dry, cool, clear air brought out the gardeners tonight. And at dusk, it brings out dozens of huge dragon flies that hover about the garden, reducing the mosquito population by the hundreds each hour.


August means that peppers are coming in, and these early gypsy peppers are getting ready for snacking. Gypsies are some of the sweetest of the bunch.

Flowers, red tomatoes, pumpkins turning orange, happy gardeners working away. Nice night.






Revolution


"Tell me have, have you seen the revolution
Could it be seeds growing inside of you
Let your heart and this peace be the solution
Take the love that you have
And pass it from side to side"

Jeb Puryear

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

They're Here!

This past weekend, the first of the (non-cherry) tomatoes turned red. So I picked ten or twelve at home and another ten or twelve at Perkins on Sunday night. When I came home from work today, just twenty-four hours later, I found another dozen red ones in the home garden.

Clean out the bottom drawer of the fridge and make room, because here they come. It's time for tomatopalooza 2006!

Thankfully, the weather forecast is for a cool weekend. Saturday we'll break out the big pot and the canning jars and get some of these 'maters ready for eatin'... in February 2007.

Other stuff in the garden is coming along nicely as well. Yesterday we ate a few small ears of corn out of the home patch. They were a bit starchy.

This past weekend we were also popping mouthfuls of soybeans. Soybeans are much more tasty fresh out of the garden than they would seem. They make a great snack. Just steam briefly, cool, and munch away.

The kale and chard are still going strong, and a few similar crops are on their way... cabbage and cauliflower. We have some nice, big heads of orange cauliflower coming in (and a cool front just in time to help them grow!). The cabbage is a ways off, but the heads sure are startin' to look pretty.