As the Garden Grows

I admit to having been a real funk lately. Hence the absence here. I guess you could call it a garden funk. I have barely spent any time in the garden in 3 weeks. Maybe it is the heat and humidity and the drought partnered with the fact that despite the drought, the weeds have finally taken over.

I came home from work this afternoon to cloudy skies and soft rolling thunder. The weather predictions for the next couple of days have forecast rain and possibly very much of it if hurricane Ernesto follows the predicted path up into the heart of North Carolina. So with this impending rain, I decided to see what there was to harvest in the garden. I put on my boots and went to the lower garden and cut the mostly dry seed heads from the sunflowers and put them into the bottom of my bushel basket. I went further down the the pea patch (crowder peas). Most of them have been severely damaged from the drought and high temperatures but to my disbelief, I was able to pick a couple of fist fulls and saw a few new pods and even a couple of blooms. I then cut just a few pods of okra; just enough to add to some soup or stewed tomatoes. I turned to survey my late corn crop. Pretty pitiful and sad it was. The ears are so tiny but I picked a couple, shucked them and they were so pretty, perfectly filled in with beautiful kernels however only about 3 inches long. I ate them on the spot and they were delicious. The deer will probably think that they are delicious too. Maybe I can harvest some for us to enjoy. I looked for my potatoes and couldn't see any plants. After I scratched and pulled a few weeds, I was able to find the withered plants, so I marked them and will try to dig some after the rains. I picked up my basket and walked over my little bridge to the top half of the garden. The early corn is still standing and I want to cut some stalks to decorate for fall. The tomatoes are still putting on but the larger ones are cracking very badly. Still, I picked a good many. Even the brandywines seem to be making another attempt at production. Half of what I picked was from those vines. I picked more crowder peas and noticed that those devil black ants are still keeping vigil over this particular patch of peas. I don't know what it is they like about them but it is like robbing bees of their honey. The ants attack. They crawl up your hand or arm when you reach to pick the pods and bite. They don't leave any mark or anything and it doesn't hurt that bad but it is very annoying. I decided I'd flick them real good with my thumb and forefinger to knock them down before I grabbed the pea pods. Worked pretty good and I got another couple of fists fulls of peas. I noticed that my white runner green beans had a lot of seed pods waiting for me to collect. I'll have to do that later...wait for more to dry. My Luffa gourds are doing well. I should have plenty of pot scrubbers this year. Then I saw red...my cayenne peppers. The whole plant looked aflame. They were all loaded with bright deep red pods. I picked them all and a few habaneros too.

All the while the thunder got a little louder, rumbling across the land and sky. It was the most majestic thunder I have heard in quite a while. The promise of much needed rain was accented by a few drops occasionally falling to the parched earth beneath my feet. When I was done and had added a few herbs to my bushel basket to make some herb vinegar, I realized that I had an incredible bounty. Not only was my basket filled to overflowing but I carried something else too; something inside. The garden had once again taken me in, renewed my spirit and restored my soul. I thanked my garden out loud for it's gifts and I promised that I would not be so long gone again.

Saturday's forecast calls for a high of 75 and mostly cloudy. I hope to finally get some work done in the garden that I have been seriously neglecting lately due to the intense heat and humidity. I mean, I have been going out each day and picking tomatoes, okra and butterbeans. I even pulled the rest of the corn one evening this week but I could never force myself to stay out there for more than an hour. After an hour I would come in the house flushed, mosquito bitten, hot and cranky. It just wasn't workin'. It was beginning to seem like too much of a chore and not a joy like it had been before the heat wave. So I am looking forward to rubbing myself down with tansy leaves (to foil the mosquitoes) and spending some weeding, trimming, and culling some of the growth as well as picking the rest of the butterbeans that are ready.

I need to can tomatoes again too. I tried something new this year (well, new to me). I cut the tops off the tomatoes and gave them a squeeze over a bowl to release the seeds and some of the juice; put them skins and all into my large stock pot and cooked them until they were mostly mush. After letting them cool a bit, I transferred about 1-2 quarts at a time to my colander and then pushed the good stuff through while the skins and most of the seeds that were left stayed behind where I could just dump it to the compost bowl and go again. I ended up with a very nice tomato sauce, just a little bit watery; but after I cooked that down a bit, it was just right. I can either can it at that point and have virtually endless uses for it this winter or make sauce. For this I add garden fresh herbs, basil, thyme, parsley, oregano just picked from my herb beds; grated zucchini squash, some diced bell peppers that I roasted, onions that were lightly sauted add from the garden, fresh garlic, salt and pepper. I didn't measure much, just went by taste. What I ended up with was some pretty good pasta sauce. I put it in jars and pressure canned them. Later when I am ready to use it I can add ground beef if I choose or just add some parmesan cheese. It tasted delicious. The tomatoes were so good and sweet I didn't even need to add any sugar (big plus). You just can't buy anything that good at the store! The only down side is that it is a lot of work and I only yielded a few jars of this fabulous sauce. I do plan to make it again though, because 1-I love pasta! and 2-It makes me feel good to take my own tomatoes and make something that will be so comforting come this winter. It will be a taste of summer in the dead of winter and bring back the memories of this year's garden and the time I spent there...

Yesterday, we finally got some rain. Enough that did some good. The thunder rolled in and then the lightening came. Next came the rain. For the most part, it was a nice soft, slow rain that lasted quite a while. I even think It rained again during the night. The rain was nice but it probably won't save my crowder peas. I picked what will more than likely be the last yesterday evening after the storm. I also picked a ton of tomatoes, some okra and some peppers. I also started on the butterbeans. I only picked about 1/3 of one side of the row before it started raining again and got over a gallon of the dried pods. I still have the rest of the row, the other side and there are plenty of green ones hanging on the vine. I think I will be in butterbean heaven!. I also picked some of the butternut squash that looked ripe. I pulled the rest or the corn and will cut it off the cob to can tonight. I need to pick the rest of those dried pods of butterbeans but the weather is calling on another storm to hit this afternoon so I may not get to but Hurray! More rain.

Almost too many tomatoes. I better not complain though, I did plant 22 tomato plants and had visions of putting up salsa, sauce, and diced tomatoes. Which is what I will be doing this evening after bringing in a 5 gallon bucket filled to the rim with tomatoes. Yes, I said tomatoes. I have better boys the size of baseballs, beefy boys the size of softballs, Cherokee Purples bigger even yet and of course the roma tomatoes are putting on and ripening like crazy and I probably pulled 3 gallons of them alone. So everything is good on the tomato front (after all that worry at first about a little bottom rot). The only distressing thing is that the brandywine tomatoes, my favorite slicing tomato have stopped producing for now. There are some green ones still on the plants so I hope I'll get some more of those later.

It has been so dry here this week. We have not received any rain that amounted to anything substantial in over a week. I will need to water the garden tonight if I don't want all this work to go to waste. The deer have found my corn and have tramped down several stalks and happily munched on the ears. The damage is really not that bad so far though and after all, their probably hungry, no?

I need to figure out a way to store my butternut squash. It is looking very much like picking time and I haven't figured out yet what to do with it. I thought about putting it under the house, but I am afraid some varmit might get under there and eat them. Any advice? Mostly mice are the worry so maybe my cats will be of some help there. A co-worker asked me yesterday, how I keep the squirrels from eating my tomatoes, I replied that I haven't had any problems. Mostly because my black halloween cat (he's a male and very territorial) likes to nap in the garden during the day under the shade of the tomatoes or corn. I do have squirrels in the woods just 100 feet from my garden but I haven't had any to touch my tomatoes yet. Good kitty!

Lastly, I am so blessed to be living on this piece of land. Last night, I went outside to hang out some sheets to dry today. It was about 10:00 and pretty dark out but my neighbor has a safety light out back and that helped to light my way. As I stepped out the back door, I realized that the humidity hadn't let up and that the air was still very warm. I walked to the clothesline and the symphony of crickets, dry flies, cicadas, frogs and all the other night creatures was like music to my ears. I wanted to pitch my tent and sleep right there. Then I looked up at the moon. It was a little over 1/2 full and very very bright. Even with the hot humid air, a chill ran all over me and I actually got goose bumps on my skin.....