September 25, 2006

bird’s eye view

I’m doing a bit better putting panoramas together without seams, but I have a terrible problem with a dirty camera. I’m looking forward to bringing it to a shop for cleaning tomorrow. I suppose it makes sense that it would need some maintenance once in a while. Anyway, this photo is the garden from upstairs with my 12 foot tall tomatoes and dahlias. Our weather has cooled off into the 50-60’s at night, 70’s in the day. The garden is still growing. I recently planted some Swiss chard and I’m…

September 24, 2006

cooked carrots with parsley

Daucus carota I don’t think I’ve ever grown enough carrots to really taste them. Last Tuesday, I pulled a big bunch and cooked enough to make five nice servings. They were delicious. Like a home grown tomato, a whole different flavor than store bought. I think I’ll expand my carrot crop next year with some different varieties.

September 20, 2006

sliced yellow Brandywine tomato

I was just reading some history on this variety, which apparently is unrelated to the Brandywine variety. It is described as “a large yellow beefsteak type tomato with an excellent flavor and a creamy texture that reaches weights from 1 to 2 pounds. These nice yellow tomatoes are produced in adequate numbers upon an indeterminate vine which features potato type leaves“. It was tasty. The creamy texture is very pronounced. For me, this variety (and my real Brandywine’s) produced about 3-4 tomatoes per 10 foot plant. Compared with about 15…

September 19, 2006

carrot harvest

My carrots are ready to pull. Here’s a nice one. About 5 or 6 inches I think. And fat. And only a little bifurcated. And delicious. An interesting sweet and very carroty taste that you don’t get in the store bought ones. We ate this one fresh – carrot chip slices. Daucus carota

September 18, 2006

tomato spots

Does anyone know what happened here? A few of my tomatoes are mottled with chocolate brown spots. I’ve never seen this before. I’m guessing a mold or virus of some kind. Maybe from too much water. I’ve been lucky this year with no end rot, minimal cracking and nicely shaped tomatoes. This at the cost of a water bill twice my normal (aarrgh!). My guess is the brown is from too much water. Any ideas? Solanum lycopersicum

September 17, 2006

what to do with all those cukes ….

Straight-up and very dry. The best use I’ve found. Cucumis sativus

September 17, 2006

tomato bowl

My counter top bowl is staying full of tomatoes. That’s a yellow Brandywine on top. Something new I found and am looking forward to trying. We eat tomatoes for lunch and dinner now, and I will have to start putting some away. I’m trying to remember what I like to do with them. One easy thing is to just slice and freeze in baggies. They are great on homemade pizzas.

September 16, 2006

Skippy’s vegetable garden in September

From the upstairs window.

September 12, 2006

Eggplants

I haven’t picked any eggplants yet, but I will soon. These were supposed to be Classic, an oval Italian type, but they look more like a longer oriental variety. This year, instead of using the little fences to edge my garden, I have used them next to plants as supports. They are holding up my veronica, my snapdragons and my eggplants. They work well at keeping the fruit off the ground. topic: eggplant

September 10, 2006

squash profusion

I’m not sure what’s going on here. This is the growing tip of one of my yellow squash vines. Looks like about 50 thousand little female squash buds all squished together. Kind of overboard it seems.

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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