I am finally now working on the fall garden. Earlier sowings this month just did not make it: it was too hot and too dry for germination. A little rain though, and arugula, cilantro and dill are popping up. Yesterday I pulled  the corn stalks from the lower garden (approving clucking noises in the chicken yard where the corn stalks landed) and quickly reshaped the beds. Today I transplanted a few cabbage seedlings. I also planted some sprouted potato tubers… you never know…

Most of the corn has been pulled up that is. A few stalks (left center) were tied together to make an impromptu trellis for a volunteer currant tomato. You use what you have…

I do not know why it took me all those years to finally cook an entire Reunionese meal for friends.

Maybe it was because I did not think anybody would be interested. I am relieved to say that was not at all the case. In fact, I was asked to please make more of them in the future. I don’t know why I am surprised. Reunion food IS good.

Maybe it was because I felt I would have to get all those exotic ingredients , and that felt wrong. As it turns out, a lot of things grow or can grow in Virginia, but yes, I had to get some things grown far away - It was special, I got over the reluctance.

Maybe it was because I was not sure I could cook it right.  Get the right cut of meat. Or be able to use a specific technique successfully. In fact, by carefully selecting the menu, one can make a fairly authentic Reunionese meal in Virginia.

Or maybe it’s just that as one gets older, one goes back to one roots.

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I’ve been waiting for them not- so-patiently. It’s probably been the hardest year in the garden since we moved here - at least when comparing input to output. It’s been a rough year weather- wise, following several years of rough-weather.

This year we had no spring; summer and drought arrived in April; we broiled in July which tormented us with several days over 100F (38 C). The tomatoes did not like it - especially considering that they were planted a little late - but sustained with copious watering, they shouldered through. Now we are harvesting for real.

A lot of things  are not doing so well. The early summer squash plantings have vanquished under the onslaught of the squash bugs; the beans produced for a couple of weeks before being turned into lace by the Mexican bean beetles (the lima beans went straight into lace, no crop); it’s been too hot for dill and for peppers to set flowers (let alone fruit); and … the blister beetles have bee devouring the Swiss chard. I have never had any problem growing Swiss chard before and blister beetles are a painful experience that I confronted this year for the first time.

On the bright side, we continue to have a reasonable harvest from the asparagus beans (a crop new to me); the summer cabbage has been doing well (2 more heads to harvest); the basil is exploding; the butternut squash looks good; the peppers have lots of flowers (and with cooler temperature should set fruit … cross fingers…); the ground cherries are prolific. I  have hopes for the late planting of summer squash… the cucumbers are swelling… and the much awaiting tomatoes are finally ripening.

And so it is time to preserve tomatoes. Time for canning, saucing, pasting,  drying (especially cherry tomatoes!), oven preserving (delicious on sandwiches and Tomato Tatin) and… can you guess?… sorbeting! At last, we can have some fun

Picture below is Yellow Tomato Sorbet (I used heirloom Valencia, meaty and sweet). Surprisingly creamy and… really yummy.

Early Girl is blushing!

The rest of them Amish Paste, Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, San Marzano,White Wonder et all are actually looking pretty good.

Just not ripening yet!

Back in January, I seeded tomatoes because I confidently was going to harvest tomatoes in June (for the record, it has happened in the past).

Today is July 12; have I harvested a tomato yet? No. Emphatically and sadly no. I mean a “real” tomato,  a handful of cherry tomatoes absolutely do not count. This is what happens when you are unable to up-pot the seedlings as they grow, and grow, and grow.

I have however harvested a pumpkin. Yes, a pumpkin.

To add insult to injury from a volunteer pumpkin (the ones I planted are not as far advanced - by far!  a reminder , if any, to plant seeds next year in April not in May)

The pumpkin was not fully ripe, but as the vine was dying off, I had to pick it. Because it is immature, it will not keep long. So I cut it up and baked it to pre-cook it (it is still firm, although cooked). An immature pumpkin is perfectly edible, the taste and texture a little closer to summer squash that winter squash. There’ll be lots of summery preparation for it - for it is, after all, just a squash…

I’ll saute chunks with shredded sage & butter; I’ll slice it thickly and grill the slices; I’ll slice it thinly and toss the slivers with a spicy dressing and lots of cilantro; cubes may even be sauteed in butter, finished with maple syrup and served with vanilla ice-cream. Who says pumpkin is for winter only? They are eaten all over the tropics and it’s hot there, you know….

This morning, as I was working in the lower garden, I noticed however that one Early Girl was definitively blushing. Maybe a tomato on July 15 after all? Or maybe we’ll have corn before tomatoes this year, the silk are turning brown…

Sigh…..

Yesterday I knew summer was here.

How did I know it? No, not because the temperature was - again! - over 90 (over 32 C) in the shade; 116 (47 C!!!) in the sun insisted the thermometer (wish I misread that). Not because the creek is drying up - although it is and we need rain badly. Not because it’s muggy, because it surely is and it has been feeling like August for too many days (somebody actually installed a small fan in the new chicklets’ pen - that’s how hot and stifling it is).

No, it’s  because the day before yesterday the first empty cicada shell was spotted, still hanging onto the smoke tree trunk, split open in the back -  the cicada who lived in it for many years under the earth now gone to live in the sun for a few months, singing. Yesterday I heard the first cicada sing. The sure sign of summer. Cicadas do not make mistakes.

Yesterday morning I also picked blueberries at a small pick-your-own bramble farm, a few miles from me. I suppose that’s another sign of summer Read more »

I do not recommend trying to make ice-cream at a 4-H Camp without an ice-cream maker, without electricity, in 90 ° F weather (32 C) and in 20 minutes. It just does.not.work.  The kids were good sports about tossing or shaking leaky bags full of ice, but it was a complete failure. They were also very good sports about the eating the “milk shake”; at least there were roasted bananas and cherries to go with that… sigh…

But you can make ice-cream without an ice-cream maker -  and pretty decent ones at that. Read more »

The June garden can be quite overwhelming. There is a lot to seed still, a lot to rip out, a lot to build, a lot to maintain,  a lot to harvest, and a lot to clear and get ready for the next crop. We plant continuously here at Laughing Duck gardens, and try to put something in as soon as we rip something out.

Lets see… We have harvesting mustard greens (still. again!), strawberries, Swiss chard, beets, zucchini & summer squash, all kinds of herbs, and green beans. We are seeing the last of the kale (there was not much to start with anyway). We just finished harvesting  the last of the shelling peas and, all the currants. And I have picked the last of the asparagus for this year ( I am now letting the fern grow). Read more »

It’s sour cherry time - or rather, sour cherries are just over here in the Virginia Piedmont. A kind cherry tree owner offered me their tree to pick, and I gratefully enjoyed the privilege. But as the garden is going gangbusters (with  planting, harvesting, cleaning and maintaining - ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!), I have little time to write down recipes, so photos is all we get. Maybe I’ll scribble down some of the recipes in the next few posts…

When sour cherries are in season, one rushes to pick, pick, pick and then pit, pit, pit and process. Because the season is very brief: on Memorial day they are blushing, on June 15, they are over!

So what to do with sour cherries:

- pit them, toss them with sugar, other berries and enjoy as a sweet-tart refreshing dessert

- pit and freeze for later use

- sour cherry preserves

Read more »

Picking up strawberries in the garden on a warm day is a true sensual experience.

Your eyes are caught by the bright vermilion peeking not-so-shyly from under dark green leaves; your fingers caress grainy plumpness; the warmth of the noon sun radiates on your back; the whole garden is humming around you; the heady perfume of strawberry hangs heavily in the air, and finally the taste of that warm ripe strawberry explodes in your mouth.

Yes indeed that dainty delicacy is full of pleasures. When picked ripe - at its peak.

One can't grow enough strawberries. From top left, scarlet Virginia strawberry, fragile Alpine strawberry, and water deprived (therefore small) garden strawberry 'Tristar'

The strawberry is a relatively new comer to our gardens - especially when compared to the apple or the quince. Read more »