Of Cabbages and Kings….
Not quite the “first fruit” Because I snitched some squash last week and chopped it up in a salad. A small harvest yesterday. Took that nice big cabbage in and used about 2/3 of it for coleslaw. Our things aren’t quite organic, because we really have a war with the insects. There are so many farms around here that have been spraying the crops for years, so I think there are a lot of uberbugs. The pest of the moment is earwigs- they enjoy the rainy season so they’ve been out in abundance munching on things. A relatively low toxic product, like Safer’s Insecticidal Soap, chases them out. Did you know that tobacco is poison? <grin> If a baby chews up a pack of cigarettes, it’s very serious. Anyhow, one of the older bug killing methods is to infuse tobacco with water as a sort of tea. One of the organic gardening places sells tobacco seeds for gardeners who want to grow their own plants, dry the tobacco for making “natural” insecticide. Hmmm- might try it on flowers but I wouldn’t use it on food items.
The squash is a little slow growing, better than having a mountain of it I suppose. We had that one heatwave, but it’s been a cooler, wetter growing season than last year. I pick the little squash to throw in with things. Growing up, my dad would always be trying to palm off zucchinis, big as baseball bats, off on the neighbors. We are going to have a LOT of pumpkins this year. I’m going to try dehydrating it; makes sort of a pumpkin flour.
We got green tomatoes all over the place, but small yet. I bought five plants from the garden center (boring old red ones) and we have a DOZEN of the heirlooms from seed. I love those- it’s like “mystery fruit” because I won’t know which varieties until they set their fruit!
So I was reading a book, Land of Mango Sunsets by Dorothea Benton Frank. I’ve read three or four of her books now and they’ve all been excellent! Anyhow, one of the characters made a tomato pie for dinner. Hmmmm- there’s two kinds of ‘mater pie. There’s one that’s more a quiche with ripe tomatoes. Nice summer fare. Also, there’s a “mock apple” made with green tomatoes. I’ve never made one, but it sounds interesting. Green tomato slices with lots of cinnamon and sugar. I guess you have to remember that tomatoes are fruits. Rhubarb is a vegetable, but it’s inedible without sugar-Nature does some funny stuff at times!
Oh back to the book- she writes about life on places like Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina. She makes it sound like heaven. While being able to walk along the shore and watch the dolphins play sounds wonderful, I am skeptical. Marshy coves are full of insects and they like to eat me! Once we went to Cypress Gardens and with all the water features, the bugs found me! If you go there, wear your repellant. Mmmm, Citronella perfume? Could there be a market for it?
Nobody has ever done the Olympics better than ABC with Jim MacKay: I’m just saying. NBC has been doing the Summer Games for years now and I’m always disappointed. ABC used to take a sport not so well known, tell the viewer about it, and cover the events. These days, it seems like several events are just ignored, or they’ll mention when USA wins a medal, but not cover the event. I was just looking- there are ten events in fencing. I would love to watch it. People with swords….works for me!
Very Creepy! I was playing around with the Google Earth maps yesterday. Kept zeroing in on our neighborhood. The weather thing is amazing. The weather radar overlays the map, so I could say to Pyrate, “the front is now crossing Buffalo Road, so the storm should be here in a couple of minutes” That’s really high tech! BUT Oh my goodness! You can see my car sitting in the driveway! I feel “spied upon” I’m not sure how this works. Are there satellites up in orbit just taking pictures of the whole world? If I find out it’s “real time” LIVE, I might go out in the driveway and do a nekkid dance or something. Spy on me and I’ll give a show!
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