This 'N That

What beautiful weather we had today! I went to the garden early to do some timely watering. Just about have that down to a science. We are still not having rain, but watering seems to keep everything producing well. There was a cool breeze. The neighborhood air conditioners were not humming, so there was only the birds chirping.

J had suggested that he run to Burger King and get a couple of sausage and biscuits, normally a no-no, but under the circumstances we buckled and said what-the-heck. He brought them back along with two senior coffees, and we prepared to sit in the swing and enjoy breakfast before getting back to the garden. Birds had visited the swing and left their calling card, so we had to go to Plan B, which was NOT sitting in the swing.

When I finished watering vegetables and did the daily inspection of vegetables ready to pick, I was so surprised to find that there was a "picking" of cranberry beans. That happened so fast! A day or two before, I had found just a handful of beans mature enough to have for one meal, and these were on older vines that had not been drowned from the torrential rains we had this spring. We had replanted, and the new vines are probably a week and a half younger; however, they are promising to be prolific. Just from these few vines, I was able to can three pints of cranberry beans. Actually, that is very easy, and shelling the pretty, speckles beans is a pleasure.

It had seemed that the hot weather has slowed down our pole beans. However, this morning I saw a new crop of beans. I did gather enough for three pints of a combination of Louisiana Purple Pod and rattlesnake beans. That totals 43 pints of green beans I have canned this spring. I plan to continue to can them until my surgery this coming week, and after that, if I am not up to canning them at that stage, I will just let them go shelly, as that is delicious, also. That is, if my neighbors don't want to gather them. The baby limas are blooming heavily, as are the Christmas speckled butterbeans.

We are in awe of our tomatoes. It seems that using the gallon-jug-method of watering and feeding has really paid off. Those tomatoes are huge! I hope they are sweet and good as they look. Today we saw two in different stages of ripening. One will be picked tomorrow.

The delightful surprise has been the Japanese eggplant. That is bearing so well. We slice each veggie, microwave just long enough to speed cooking, and put on the stovetop griddle until just lightly browned. With a dusting of salt and pepper, it is ready to enjoy, and how easy is that. I am not good at remembering the names of the different varieties, so as we were familiar with the usual large dark purple variety, we have been pleasantly surprised at one which is a light purple large one. Prepared like the Japanese kind, this is just so good. We try not to use a lot of oil. I use the aerosol spray oil which is convenient, and a little spray will do ya. These plants are so healthy and beautiful.

Unfortunately, our yellow squash is not doing so well. We have had a few off them, but they are suffering, and it could be from the extreme heat. We have started a new batch and hope for better luck there. The older zucchini has had a very few on it, but it is not prolific yet, as one would expect from that variety. But with the eggplant and beans, we have had enough variety to not get bored. We are having a bit of okra. The cucumbers have been delightful, and thankfully are not producing so heavily that we can't take care of them. We have enough to share with family. The two jalapenos are producing enough to have as a condiment, picked before they are too hot. They have such a delicious taste of pepper without the heat. I had never realized their value at that stage before this year. I hope I can save enough to make hot sauce later.

Just as a lark, earlier, I had purchased a pot of cantaloupe seedlings but really didn't expect much from them. Wow! We have counted about seven melons in different stages of development, the largest almost large enough to eat, although it appears that they have a few days to go yet. Certainly hope the bunnies don't catch on. I saw one scamper away when I got to the garden this morning, but apparently he/she doesn't know what lies just a few feet from them.

We have harvested the last of the onions. That has been such a delight. We really had too much rain for them to be cared for properly, but anyway they have done well. We don't plant corn or potatoes because of J's dietary restrictions for diabetes reasons. We lost out on a crop of mustard greens, probably because of the excess water early. Will try again this fall.

A bit further into the back yard, not in the garden, we have three blueberry bushes that have done beautifully this spring. Last spring, we probably got one berry after that fateful freeze. This is a daily thing to do, keeping them picked. The grandsons love blueberries and helped pick when they visited. We can keep that done and really enjoy doing it. Also, our apple trees that we thought were too old to do much have a heavy crop of apples. We had given up on ever having peaches because they would always be nipped in the bud by a freeze, but surprise of surprises, this year we have a heavy crop of peaches which should be ripening fairly soon. Don't know exactly what I'll do with them, but I'll have to do something. There may be some Bartlett pears, also. No pecans, though, thanks to some resident squirrels. We have given up trying to control them. Oh, well.

I guess that just about rounds up my bragging for the day. I am trying to not let the vegetables go to waste, but really, really enjoy taking care of them. Although I am not a worrier, keeping busy with the vegetables has kept me occupied so that I don't have too much time on my hands as I await my mastectomy a week from tomorrow. I am being very positive and not expecting to be "laid up" for long, but if I have chemo, and I bet I will, I am not projecting too far about that just yet.

Tomorrow morning, I plan to finish adding soil to the last two hosta planters. Those two beautiful plants have so patiently waited for me to finish transplanting them. Then they should not need such attention for a long time, other than watering, etc. As Gilda Radner used to say, "it's always somethin'."