this year the cucumbers never stopped and
would be going still if Ma hadn't taken the
vines out yesterday. since we had a bucket's
worth of them we made even more bread and
butter pickles. i don't know how many quarts
we've done of those, but perhaps 50... not
counting all the cucumbers we've eaten and
given away that's a huge amount from three
plants.

the onions are in, i finally got out in the
stiff breeze we had (otherwise the mosquitoes
have been ferocious) and dug them all up (or
at least as many as i could find). about a
bucket full. most of them are between tiny
and a few inches across, planted from a mix of
seeds so there are at least four different
kinds. they could have been thinned a lot
more than i got around to doing, but even the
small ones are good for a garnish and the red
ones are always good for a bit of color. i'm
drying/curing them in flats and then they'll be
stored in the garage for the winter. it does
get below freezing in there so perhaps i'll have
to do something different, but there's also a
really good chance we'll use most of them up
before it gets that cold. yes, we can eat that
many onions (and we've not started on the
pickled beets yet).

squash are also in, Ma decided to take those
vines out even if they were still flowering and
starting small squash. i cooked up a bunch of
the small squash along with some of the most
reject onions that needed something done with
them and a few red peppers too... turned out
yummy. we ate one of the orange colored squash
and i thought it was ok in flavor but i think
squash taste better after they've aged a bit.

the tomatoes are almost done, the only
remaining fruits on the plants are the cherry
tomatoes the rest are all in the garage now
finishing off. Ma said she's going to take
those plants out today. which is good because
i need a spot for the garlic... as usual the
average per plant on the beefsteaks were about
25 - 30 pounds and the cherry tomatoes probably
have been close to that too. it was a pretty
good tomato year. the original plan was that
Ma was going to be giving away the tomatoes
this year, so why we have put up another 80
quarts of tomatoes i dunno, but we've gotten
a lot of laughs out of it. 36 quarts are
already gone (a friend was happy to trade us
for them) and the rest are heading out too
eventually... i hope...

the dry beans are coming in ok, still have
a fair amount to finish up on the plants yet.
the past few weeks have been mild weather with
little rains so that has helped get things
further along. the mild weather has also
meant little breeze so those mosquitoes have
been a challenge to ignore. some days i was
able to cover up so that they couldn't get
through the layers of clothes and other days
i would just go out and pick until i got fed
up with swatting mosquitoes more than i was
picking beans. but the past several days
were windy enough that i could get ahead on
the picking. i have a good supply of pods
picked now so that i can shell and sort on the
days when the weather doesn't cooperate. which
might even be this weekend if the forecast does
actually turn out to be accurate...

carrots and fennel doing well still. the
fennel is just blooming and i'm eating some
of the tops before they bloom. very yummy.
decided to leave the bottoms alone so they
could bloom... not sure how long they'll be
edible if left out.

brussels sprouts... the plants are huge
and we're not even picking them and eating them
as much as we both like them, it's just been
too much other stuff going on so we've not
gotten around to it. as the plants were extras
from my brother we didn't really know what to
do with them and apparently we still don't.
my Ma was going to chop off the plants and take
the whole stalk back to my brother's place so
he can deal with them or eat them as it would
be a good laugh, but he can't eat that many
either...

ok, well that's enough of this ramble. time
to have a bit of breakfast and then out to walk
and whatever puttering i can get into for the
day.


songbird