Beans and Radishes

I still don't know when to pick my radishes...

And I have a lot of yellowy beans that are the right size but not turning green.  Not sure when they'll be ready.

CRAZY Spaghetti Squash

I am gonna have a lot of spaghetti squash.  Not only did I plant like six plants--because I had em...but each one is doing really well.  Happy Spaghetti squash birthday to EVERYONE I know!

It's a REAL pumpkin!

This guy is amazing.  I love to see him look more and more like a pumpkin every day.  How exciting.  I'm already thinking of what I'm going to do with him.

Other vegetables are looking quite mature as well these days....

Garden News

On Friday I tried to trim back some of the monster vines, and for about a day it seemed like I had them under control, but two days later and it looks like nothing happened.

On other fronts, I harvested my first lovely deep purple Japanese eggplant today.  Gordon won't be thrilled, but I am!  

It seems I'm going to have a bumper crop of spaghetti squash.  And the yellow zucchini appears to be dying, but I have no idea what to do about it.  Maybe I should take it out before it affects the other plants...

Look at my Pumpkin!

Is that a nice looking pumpkin or what? 

The Radish Nation

The Radish Nation is small and strong.  Really small.  Ok, there are only two radishes.  I started out with four...  Note to self.  One radish plant equals one radish.  Oh well, my two radishes are lovely.  I have no idea, though, when they are ready for plucking.

Canning Part 2

So the idea was for the second batch to be plum preserves.  According to the canning book, the plums in the preserves were supposed to hold their shapes in the jar.  Haha.  Well, we started out with pitted plum halves, but ended up with plum jam.  I'm a little disappointed, but this second batch of plum jam is even more jelled than the first batch, so at least we made an improvement.  I still love the idea of a beautiful jar full of plum halves, so if anyone has any thoughts--or knows how we might accomplish that next year, please do comment.

Plum Canning Part 1

Last night was plum preserves night.  I picked the "old fashioned" jam from the Ball canning book, which could also be called "takes forever" jam.  It's also very hot here, so "old fashioned" meant stirring the plums over the hot oven for TWO HOURS!  Gordon and I were very hot and tired by the time the spoon test sort of worked.  We liked the plate test better.  I have a feeling we could have stirred all night and the spoon test was never going to look the way it did in the book.  But grumpy moments and near melt-downs aside, we woke up this morning to 11 1/2 jars of very lovely, perfect jam.  We opened the half jar to have on our toast, and I must say, the suffering was worth it.  

But we're not done yet!  Tomorrow we do the plum preserves.

New babies

These babies are really tiny...can you guess them?  

Cucumbers!  They look like mini dill pickles.  

Something's amiss in Zucchiniland

I don't know what's happening.  But in the last two days the larger leaves have started to shrivel and dry up.  Yes, it is getting enough water...Hmm a mystery.  

Novice Gardening Lesson #1

Vines get BIG

Ok, I knew we were pushing it on the space front...but in my special dream garden I imagined the vines would wind their way around everything and stay on the ground.  My plan didn't include the fact that they actually grow UP too--and they send out wonderful little wrappy fingers that attach to everything in their paths--including eggplants and artichokes.  We'll see how it goes, but it's not looking great for the artichoke, eggplants and peppers.  Not to mention that the beets down in Beetton have enormous sun shades covering them.  Well, at least the Radish Nation seems to be escaping the encroaching giants--so far.

Next year I'll get a permaculture book.  Until then, we'll keep doing our best!

Shady days in Beetton

Artichoke and eggplant in a sea of monster vines.

New Arrivals!

Can you guess these baby vegetables?

Haricots Verts

a teeny weeny bell pepper

And a wee baby pumpkin!

So very cute!

This is just to say

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which 

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet 

and so cold.

--William Carlos Williams

First Harvest

 These guys appeared overnight.  We're gonna be eating a lot of squash this summer!  Ratatouille anyone?

Jon's plums are in!

Jon gave me this Santa Rosa plum tree when he moved away from LA last year.  How lovely to have so many beautiful plums!  Now I'm deciding what the best way to preserve some will be.  I'm dreaming of a plummy Christmas...

Watch my garden grow!

When I first met Gordon I told him that I wanted to plant a vegetable garden.  The next day he came over with a tray full of little vegetable plants.  Very romantic.  We spent the next two weeks weeding and getting my little patch ready.  Here it is two weeks ago and today--my first harvest!