Summer at Our House
Summer 1998
This summer we have made strawberry fruit spread and blackberry jam from our berry garden. And I, who rival Barbara Graff in my love for blackberries, made one blackberry cobbler after another for a month! It was great! Our blueberry crop was a disappointment this year ... it was hit by a late frost and we lost most of it. We did put in six more blueberry bushes in the spring in hopes of having a bigger crop in future years. Our one-year-old paw paw tree that we put in last year is doing good (27"), and we added a second one for pollinating purposes which is also getting off to a good start (8").
We froze about 8 to 9 dozen ears of corn as well as eating it 'most every day for at least 3 weeks. I have such a great crop of basil I am going to experiment with making herb vinegars.
The most fun we are having with our garden this year is in making our own fresh salsa! We grew our peppers as well as tomatoes. We are amazed at how many tomatoes we have consumed this way! Doug says this is our way of getting ready for global warning -- growing and making a main part of our diet these very hot-weather vegetables.
Another new garden adventure for us this summer has been grilling vegetables. Doug covers a 1 x 2' grilling rack with foil and we fill it with whatever veggies we have -- tomato halves, corn in their husks, onions, little yellow squash ... it's wonderful!
We are into what I call 'mean' summer now and the garden floor is becoming covered with watermelon vines and colorful gourds that 'volunteered' and ... something new this year ... neck pumpkins. Those of you who were with us last year here on our family web page, heard about Barbara and Dale's neck pumpkins and my amazed question about what could such a thing be. Well, they managed to get one to us ... about 30 pounds worth! ... and guess what?! We have neck pumpkins in our garden this year. (I probably don't have to mention that we compost there, too, in the late season.)
So our garden has been as much a success this year as it was a disaster in last year's cool and wet El Nino summer. We have our first watermelon in the refridge now and pumpkins to look forward to right on into fall.
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Our House - Summer 1999 |
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This page last updated 12 May 2006