Whoa, doggies, it got hot today! I'm not complaining, I'm rejoicing. I spent almost the entire day in the garden, harvesting lettuce, onions, peas, carrots, snap peas, potatoes and raspberries. I pruned bottom leaves from several tomatoes, and tied them up where necessary. I pulled all the snap pea vines after a final harvest, and put them in the composter. I pulled all of the smaller onions from bed #4, and in their place I planted the parsley that wasn't doing well in its pot, two small plants of basil and five marigold seedlings. That bed is still half empty, and ready for planting something else, but I've not quite decided what. Maybe some beets.
I happened to be checking on my zucchini, when I spotted this. Twin male blossoms! I've never seen two blossoms on one stem before.
You have to look closely, but there are at least three female blossoms almost ready to open. There are also a lot of male blossoms, so pollination will hopefully take place naturally.
I cut two heads of Austrian Red lettuce, and one huge head of Red Sails. That's not my laundry basket holding the Red Sails, but it is a pretty good sized basket, and that one head of lettuce fills it completely. The last of the sugar snap peas were picked, blanched and frozen. I found several more after this photo was taken, while pulling the pea vines, so I'll be using them fresh. These are the last of the Chantenay carrots. Oh, how I wish I'd planted more! The tops broke off of the two Walla Walla onions as I pulled them, so they were cleaned and trimmed and stored in the refrigerator. The large scallion was flopping over into an adjoining bed, so it also got pulled.
A second trip to the garden gave me new red potatoes, a container of raspberries, and 2/3 cup of peas.
Quite a bit of today's harvest went into tonight's dinner. The Hamburger Cabbage Casserole contained cabbage, carrots and onion from the garden. The peas and carrots and the baby new potatoes were as fresh as they could possibly be. Of course, I had to have my favorite salad of freshly picked lettuce, cranberries and walnuts, with an oil/vinegar/sugar dressing. No, I never get tired of it! The meal was served with a crusty baguette and ice cold lemonade.It will probably be a few days before I publish another garden dinner. Sometimes we just have to eat the leftovers!
Wow, I just checked my zucchini this am and I too had twin male blossoms. Funny, eh.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, maybe they're common, and we just never noticed before!
ReplyDeleteDinner looks lovely as usual Granny, I like the sound of that salad!
ReplyDeleteI had twins this year too, have you ever had twin female blossoms ? mines died but they were soo adorable
ReplyDeleteI just drooled a bit looking at your dinner. It looks scrumptious!!
ReplyDeleteDinner looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteI happy to hear that you finally have some nice warm weather! We are hoping for a cooling down here after today.
ReplyDeleteNow that I know the difference between girls and boys....I'm going to have to go check my blossoms :)
That's it.
ReplyDeleteI'm growing more potatoes.
Can you do some in the fall? Hmmmmm...I wonder.
It looks delicious! I am impatiently waiting on my zucchini blossoms. We've got some serious heat right now, so hopefully in the next few days.
ReplyDeleteKelly, it's a salad I never tire of. Sometimes I use strawberries, sometimes I use mandarin oranges. Diced apples are good, too.
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Gaby, I guess it's not unusual then, funny I've never noticed twins before.
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Hannah, Erin and The Mom, if your mother or grandmother ever made the Campbell's Soup recipe for meatloaf, it tastes very similar. However, I'm not crazy about the meatloaf, but I love this casserole. It's sure a good way to use up a lot of cabbage, and I liked the shredded carrots I added to this one, too.
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Robin, I found 4 females this morning. I think I'll grab a male and bag it, keep it in the fridge, just in case. I've heard you can do that to save a male for hand pollinating.
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Ribbit, yes. YOU can, I can't. Looks like around the end of July to mid-August for you. I'll bet I could, too. Maybe I'll try it, just for sheets and giggles.
Awwww your first set of twins. For some reason it is normal for me to get one or more sets of twin blossoms every year. I've yet to get them on the winter squash, but for summer squash it happens often enough.
ReplyDeleteThat dinner is a pretty good garden dinner. I think in the fall you have to start planting wheat so you can do everything but the meat. After that I'll be expecting cows in your back yard. My dinners aren't nearly as gardeny.
Daphne, I tried for chickens, but Mr. Granny put his foot down on that idea! I doubt he'd go for a cow in the back yard. Besides, I'd make a pet of it, so it would just be another mouth to feed.
ReplyDeleteYou have quite the harvest!
ReplyDeleteThank you, meemsnyc, I do get quite a lot of food from a small space!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen the twin blossoms either. Very cool. Your harvest continues to amaze me.
ReplyDeleteJohanna, at least there are two of us who have never seen twins!
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