May 22, 2012

  • We Harvest Some Squash

     

    TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    The Beast and I took a stroll out to the garden today to look over the state of the tomatoes and the squash.  I was cutting the Beast's hair and glanced over at the squash and saw a lot of yellow that looked like it was ready.  It was.  Lots of them.  Enough so that the Beast gave some away to the neighbors.  They got one summer squash and two crooked necks.  And we have a bunch that will be ready in another few days plus flowers galore.  I actually took off some of the blossoms because squash does not can well.  At least not cut-up squash.  They get too mushy.  I haven't tried mashing it but I just may do that this year. 

    It looks like I may have near 50 or more of the cherry tomatoes on the one bush.  They are all green, thankfully and I told the Beast he's got to find some rosy tipped lettuce seeds for me or some other kind of leaf lettuce.  I really would like to have some.  It grows quickly (although not quickly enough for when the first of the cherry tomatoes are ready) and that way we should be able to make salad with it all summer.  The Big Boy tomatoes are doing well but we only had one that was ready.  It was also a victim of something that bored into it so the Beast tossed it into the garden and went to Lowe's to get some spray or something to put a stop to it.  He thought at first it was the fungus but I showed him where it had been entered and split the soggy area open to show him the borer.  Ick!  It grossed him out.  I didn't react to it because I knew what to expect and I think that surprised him.  I've just been taking care of a garden for many years unlike the Beast.  He'll *get it* eventually.

    I was glad to see the strawberries are full of little blossoms.  It won't be long and we will have bunches more of them.  Oh, and the raspberry bush is just FULL of raspberries.  They aren't ready by any means but I actually may get a few pints of jam from it.  The blueberry bush has little tiny berries on it.  They looked adorable.  The raspberries, by comparison, are HUGE already.  The ones I inspected were already an inch long and that should be about as large as they get if I remember correctly.  Now they can concentrate on ripening. 

    I told the Beast he's probably going to have to hit Sam's Club for 25# of sugar and a couple more containers for me to keep the sugar in.  Making jam is sugar intensive or it doesn't set up no matter how much you cook it.  Even that additive (brain fart because I can't remember the name of it offhand) that is supposed to help it *gel* won't help at all if you don't add the correct amount of sugar.  Whoda thunk it?

    I made some summer squash but I did it with brown sugar and butter because that's what the Beast said he had a taste for.  He liked what I made last summer and said he missed it.  It turned out a bit sweeter than I wanted even though I didn't even use a cup of brown sugar in it.  It was more like a loosely packed half cup.  Of course, it could be that I am not used to using much sugar so it just tastes a bit more sweet to me than it will to the Beast.

    I reiterated to the Beast that he WILL be helping me can tomatoes this year.  It's really too much work for one person.  Even though we didn't plant as many tomatoes bushes as we did last year, they really went nuts this year and are so damn tall (we measured over six feet and had to add some more support for them all on both sides.  The Beast was moaning and groaning over that because that meant six more trellises at a cost of $20 each.  But we can use them year after year.  These are made of a nice strong plastic...and I do mean strong.  They aren't hollow.

    He moved one of the trellises from last year over by the asparagus to support them.  They are tall enough to cut but really need to thicken more.  I may just trim them anyway to help them out.  I don't think they should be as tall as they are.  It seems all our veggies are doing exceptionally well this year. 

    Well, that's about all the major news here.  Hope your gardens, if you have one, are doing well.  Also hoping that you are having a great week so far.  I discussed getting the Slip and Slide for Chewlee and he got a kick out of the idea.  I could see him envisioning her using it and it agreed with him.  He's going to check it out when he goes up to our Walmart and, if he can't find the one I want (they have a variety of them!), I'm going to order it online to be shipped to our store here.  It's free (no shipping charges) and sometimes it's cheaper. 

    Love you all.  Stay safe.  Smile a lot for no good reason.  It's good for your teeth.