~
Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
75 degrees, calm, sunny
It is too hot to sit on the back porch already,
and we have a morning of gathering
potatoes in the offing. Hazy sunshine spreads out like a
down quilt, and so far only
intermittent zephyrs stir the air. We dug all of the rest
of the spuds yesterday, using our
antique horse-drawn iron wheeled potato digger. We upped
the horsepower to use our big
tractor, and it was relatively easy to pry the tubers out
of the dirt with minimum damage done.
It was slow going in first gear, but the day was breezy
and fine. We grew 1100 row-feet of
potatoes, which seems insane for only two people, and now
that we see the fruits of our labor
(well, actually vegetables) sitting on the ground we have
been doing a lot of eye-rolling at our en-
thusiasm last May when we planted them. We spent the
morning trimming and sorting onions for
storage, and have nearly finished that task. There is a
big bucket of culls that must be used soon,
so last night we had potroast that seemed to contain more
onions than meat. I have been thinning
out the second planting of carrots, and they were a sweet
addition to the savory mix. I have a
feeling there will be more eye-rolling when we harvest
our carrots; I may have gotten carried
away when I planted those too. So far I haven’t
pulled any mutants, all have been straight as
an arrow. I wanted to add some parsnips to the pot, but
never got up to that garden yester-
day. I picked about a bushel of green beans and was tied
up until eight o’clock fixing them
for the freezer. Good thing supper was a one-pot deal,
all we had to do was dish it up.
And now, the dew seems to be off the grass, so it’s
off to the potato field !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, August 30, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, sunny
This is the kind of morning where I wish we could
enjoy the leisure time of mid-winter
with the weather of late summer. The sun is warm on the
back porch, and I could easily
have fallen into a light doze with my coffee cup balanced
on my lap, except for the fact that
there is so much to do today that I need to get an early
start. You name it, it needs to be picked
and canned, frozen, dried, or sorted and stored in the
cellar. We grew a row of beautiful cabbages
that are just about ready to turn into sauerkraut,
something that usually doesn’t happen until October.
I shouldn’t be surprised, as everything else ripened
early this summer. We have dug some of the pota-
toes, and during the next two days we will finish the job;
for some reason, we planted more than usual.
I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. We do
love potatoes, and they are a good item for bar-
ter. Green beans continue to ripen every few days, and if
I pick them today there will be many slen-
der enough to freeze whole, which is my favorite way to
eat them. Even after being frozen,
a plate of whole Jade beans steamed briefly and
served with fresh basil and a dab
of butter brings back the essence of summer, even on a
cold snowy day. It will
be a hot afternoon, so best to get out there before the
sun gets any higher.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, August 29, 2010, 9:30 a.m.
74 degrees, calm, mostly sunny
After a rather chilly night the morning has warmed
up quickly. This might be the hot day
we need to dry out the potato field enough to allow for
their harvest. Our first crop of sweet
corn is all done, either consumed fresh or stored in the
freezer, and our second sowing will be
ready nearly any day, especially with the dog days of
August upon us. The swiss chard is monu-
mentally huge, but under those gianormous outer leaves
there is sure to be a fresh supply of tender
new growth just waiting for the sauté pan. Onions are
ready to be topped and cleaned up for storage,
putting aside the doubles and thick-necked ones to use
first. Garlic rests on the threshing floor of our
upper barn, and will be okay for now; when we have some
spare time we will be able to trim those
pungent bulbs for winter storage. We will soon head down
to the final day of the Snow Ridge JamFest,
which has had some awesome music and excellent food so
far. Last night there were fireworks too, and
the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. We
watched a huge lopsided orange moon rise behind the
main stage as the crowd danced to a feisty song played by
Donna the Buffalo, and had a few moments
of pure perfect bliss, surrounded by friends, music, and
a cool Tug Hill evening. Life is good !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, August 28, 2010, 7:00 a.m.
55 degrees, windy, sunny
One of our local television stations has a weathergal
that will frequently use the term
wall-to-wall sunshine to describe a morning such
as this one. It is apt, and sometimes
we try to predict whether she will say the phrase. We are
headed down the hill to the Snow
Ridge JamFest; we couldn’t ask for a more perfect
day. If you are planning to be outdoors tonight,
remember to put a warm hat and fleecy jacket into your
daypack; the past few nights have been chilly
and extra dewy. Yesterday morning we walked a few miles
on the Smith Road, and kept our jackets
on for most of the trek. There are several new stands of
tall impatiens growing on the berm, those
beautiful spicy pink flowers that resemble jewelweed,
right down to the exploding seedpods. This
is a very invasive flower, although on our Tug Hill
roadsides all it really competes with is burdock,
and in my opinion I don’t care if it chokes out this
prickly pest. Just because impatiens isn’t a native
species, does that automatically make it a noxious weed
to be reviled? If you follow that line of
reasoning, then I don’t belong here either... Now, I
am off to dance the day away !
Remember to mention Daisy at the Turin Library
baked goods booth for a free cookie.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Friday, August 27, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
56 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
What a beautiful morning! Yet, although the sun is bright,
the first nip of cooler days
to come was in the early morning air, with just a hint of
apple-filled autumn-y goodness
hovering near. The trees by the spring are loaded with
fruit, some of it large enough to eat
out-of-hand. While not as sweet as commercial apples,
these yellow and pink beauties are
completely natural and tasty, hard as rocks but yielding
their best flavor when stewed or
baked under a crispy oatmeal and brown sugar topping. For
the most part, the old or-
chards farther up the Hill did not fare as well as our
few trees nestled in the protection
of the bigger trees by the spring. I have found very few
apples as I wander Gomer Hill;
even the most reliable ones are bare of fruit. It is
nearly time to look for elderberries; we
scouted out a few big patches earlier this summer, when
the shrubs were in flower. It is hard
to miss those big flat snow-white umbels. The problem is
finding the little berries before the birds
have been at them; they will even eat the green ones. I
still haven’t had time to go blackberry picking,
but I’ll bet they are getting ripe too. This is such
a busy time of year, we need to make a list of things
according to importance. Yesterday, for example, it was
most important to pick the remaining corn
and put it in the freezer before the raccoons got it all.
Next on the list was making cookies and
brownies for a bake sale tomorrow, and finally there was
a heap of cucumbers waiting to be
turned into sweet crunchy pickles. We got everything done,
but supper was very late.
Today is laundry day, and bread-making, but soon the
number one priority will
be pulling into the yard, my friend with her dog, and we
will take a
long-awaited walk up the dirt road to appreciate this
fine morning.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Thursday, August 26, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
62 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
The sky is true blue with some wonderful warm sun
streaming down, but there are interesting
clouds to the south, big thick rolls of shining grey and
white drifting slowly to the west. To our
immediate west are some lovely purply-grey poofs that may
mean rain will show up later in the
morning. Yesterday we picked all of the green beans that
had ripened in our absence, two heaping
spackle buckets full. Some were big enough to send
through the bean frencher, a cool hand-cranked
tool that makes skinny beans out of fat ones. Today will
be spent making cookies and brownies for the
upcoming music festival at Snow Ridge. Our library holds
a bake sale under the dining tent and in years
past has made several hundreds of dollars selling things
made with love by the Turin townfolk. If you
happen to attend the JamFest this weekend, stop in and
mention Daisy for a free cookie.
For more information about the event, go to www.snowridgejamfest.com .
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, cloudy
It looks and feels as though it could rain any
minute, but the forecast suggests only
a small chance of rain later this morning. I need to pick
beans, lots and lots of beans,
so I guess I’d better get started sooner rather than
later. We had a few unscheduled jobs
yesterday, including cleaning out the baking cabinet and
silverware drawer, which had been
ravaged and fouled by a mouse while we were gone. That
dastardly critter ate butterscotch chips
and brown sugar, so we are looking for a mouse with a
sweet tooth. It also chewed into three bags
of flour before deciding to stick with the sugary stuff.
I threw everything out, and sterilized all of the
silverware and the drawer it was in, then set a trap
baited with a few butterscotch chips stuck into
cream cheese. The trap was sprung, but no mouse. The next
step is to use a bigger trap, in case it
isn’t one of those cute little tiny deer mice, but a
bigger rodent. Like a rat. Ugh. Our one remaining
cat would rather hunt outdoors; our best indoor mouser
passed away last spring. All kinds of rodents
naturally find their way inside an old farmhouse as the
nights become chilly, and this time of year we
used to expect to find a couple of little furry bodies a
week on the kitchen floor, displayed much as
a human hunter would mount an especially nice rainbow
trout or deer’s head. That cat would de-
vour everything she caught outdoors, but inside she
wanted to make sure that we knew she was
earning her keep. I guess I will have a little chat with
our current kitty, and let him know that it
is okay to commit mayhem in the kitchen now that his
sister is gone. I know it sounds a bit
daft that I talk to animals, but what if he has been
waiting for a license to kill all these years;
he can’t read my mind, you know. Meanwhile, I really
should be out picking beans,
not rambling on about cats and mice.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, August 24, 2010, 8:15 a.m.
60 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
A big fat roll of fog sits right over the Black
River, but up here the sun is blazing away,
chasing the chilly dampness from all of the nooks and
crannies. There is a good breeze from
the southeast, and laundry should dry just fine on the
lines today. Yesterday I roamed around
the gardens to see what is ready to harvest, and found a
whole mess of broccoli that was not
only ready but some was past due as well. My feet sank
several inches into the muck as I cut
away the heads and pulled yellowing leaves from the huge
plants, lucky to have escaped with
both boots still firmly on my feet. Many of our
sunflowers have uprooted from the wet soil, so
I cut off what blossoms were still good and have placed
them all over the house, bringing the
sunshine indoors for a little while. Zinnias and
goldilocks rudbeckias are in their glory as well;
there isn’t a flat surface in the great room that
doesn’t have a jug of flowers on it. Bee balm
and daisies have just about had it, and the hollyhocks
can be whacked down any time, all
worn out and raggedy. I continue to thin out the lettuce,
which is beginning to form some
nice sized heads. The final sowing of lettuce and spinach
has sprouted, so we will be able
to enjoy fresh greens well into the autumn months. Today
we will pick the last of the early
corn and freeze it off the cob, and start to trim up the
garlic that is nearly done curing.
Day-old chicks are on the way as I write this, and now I
must go and fill the feed
trays and water jugs so they can start to fatten up. Busy!
But there will still
be time to enjoy tonight's full moon, which will rise
around 7:30.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, August 23, 2010, 9:30 a.m.
56 degrees, windy, cloudy
Yikes! What a homecoming we had last night! We
arrived at around 6:00 and torrential rain
was pounding sideways, driven by a fierce east wind that
nearly ripped off the car doors when
we opened them in the yard. We left most of the unpacking
until this morning, so that everything we
brought in wouldn’t get soaked. I heard that we
received between five and six inches of rain since
Saturday
noon, and several local roads are closed today due to
flooding or erosion. We hada very good week on the
coast of Maine, then came home via the beautiful Green
Mountains of Vermont to celebrate a niece’s wed-
ding. As fine as our vacation was, it is wonderful to be
back on Gomer Hill. I ran around in the downpour
picking corn and tomatoes for our supper last night; it
was a bit chilly and damp in the house so we cooked
on the kitchen wood range, cozy as all get-out. I only
picked tomatoes from one plant at the end of the trellis,
but if that one was typical, there are a whole lot of
ripe beauties just waiting for the rain to skedaddle. I
should
be able to pick the rest of the early corn later today
and put it in the freezer; something has munched a few
ears,
but there is still plenty left for us. The later sowing
should be ready in a week or two. I haven’t been
around
to see what else is ready; it is too wet to pick much
today anyway. For sure there must be some crisp heads
of buttercrunch and green ice lettuce, so tonight’s
supper only lacks a main course. For now, the wind is
coming from the east, and it looks like there might be a
few breaks in the clouds showing up later today.
We have our hands full unpacking and trying to put things
back in order. We are awaiting a call from
the North Star Hatchery in Watertown, in case our 75 baby
chicks are ready for pick-up.
We certainly have our work cut out for us for the next
couple of months,
but if we didn’t love it we wouldn’t do it.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
(-Intermission-)
Thursday, August 12, 2010, 7:30 a.m.
65 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
It certainly feels like it could rain any minute; the
breeze is quite cool and refreshing,
after a couple of hot days under a muggy sun. I had
better scurry out quickly and pick
some young lettuce to take away to the Maine coast. We
leave before dawn tomorrow,
a long drive with friends awaiting at the other end. We
will carry a cooler full of veggies,
beans, cukes and zukes, carrots, lettuce, peppers, and
corn. The back seat will hold a
box of potatoes, onions, garlic, and tomatoes in various
stages of ripeness to last the
week. It is always hard to leave our beautiful Gomer Hill
home this time of year, but
we certainly deserve a week with nothing to do but play,
eat, drink, and read trashy
novels. We are fortunate to have a good friend who will
stay here and keep the dog
and cat company, and enjoy the produce that will continue
to ripen in our absence.
I will leave you with a little poem that captures the
essence of August.
Life is sweet !
Daisy
Cherry Tomatoes
by Anne Higgins
Suddenly it is August again, so hot,
breathless heat.
I sit on the ground
in the garden of Carmel,
picking ripe cherry tomatoes
and eating them.
They are so ripe that the skin is split,
so warm and sweet
from the attentions of the sun,
the juice bursts in my mouth,
an ecstatic taste,
and I feel that I am in the mouth of summer,
sloshing in the saliva of August.
Hummingbirds halo me there,
in the great green silence,
and my own bursting heart
splits me with life.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, hazy sunshine
Valley fog obscures the view from the neighbor’s
house on down.
Hazy sunshine is filtering through either fog or pollen;
my sneezy nose
and itchy eyes indicates the latter. I have never seen
ragweed so tall as it
is this year. It flowered extra early as well. The town
crew mowed the roadsides
last week, which should help, but there are still a
bazillion plants at the edges of all
of the cultivated fields on Gomer Hill that now have
extra huge ragweed, as the fertilizer
intended for oats and corn filtered down to the weeds
around the perimeter. We continue
to enjoy our sweet corn, as does some critter or other.
Last night we trapped a gianormous
porcupine in the Havahart, and with a little googling I
found that this may very well be the culprit.
Raccoons will break a stalk or pick the ears off and
sometimes even carry them out of the corn
patch to have a picnic on the lawn. Our stalks had mostly
been bent over, and the ears gnawed
through the husks rather than peeled and devoured. So
this spiny guy will be relocated several
miles from here, and we hope his sense of direction
won’t lead him back into our garden. I went
out around midnight to see if I could catch sight of any
corn-lovers, and was rewarded by the breath-
taking spectacle of a dozen shooting stars, as the
Perseid meteor shower begins its peakperformance.
I close today’s entry with the sad news that our
oldest cat has passed from our lives.
She was at least twenty-one years old, and during the
past week or so had chosen to
decline all food, yet drank water freely from the
birdbath and rain buckets outdoors.
She spent her last days snoozing on the cool grass during
the day and snuggled on her
sunporch perch at night. She was a great hunter and will
be missed by all of us. We are
left with one small dog and a three-legged cat, and the
house seems bigger all of a sudden.
Have a blessed day,
Daisy
Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
70 degrees, calm, mostly cloudy
Fog is lifting and I can tell that there is sun shining
above the thin clouds that linger close to earth.
I think we will have a replay of yesterday, with cool
mist in the morning, hot steamy sunshine at midday,
and then thundering rain showers at dinnertime. We
recently tilled between the rows in all of the gardens
and the rain has made for some pretty mucky treading, but
the crops certainly appreciate the aeration of
the soil and are all maturing beautifully. Our current
planting of lettuce has tripled in size since the rains
arrived, and we have been enjoying some sweet little
thinnings mixed in with cucumbers, tomatoes, red
onions, basil, and celery. In May our salads are nearly
100% greens laced with leeks and chives; this time
of year they consist of mostly toppings with the lettuce
being a secondary ingredient. No matter what the mix,
all salads are improved by the addition of a little
cheese, some fresh grated romano, or aged cheddar strips,
or pungent gorgonzola crumbles. Our cabbage is big enough
to chop into a sweet crunchy slaw, with some
grated broccoli stems and carrots added and a light
dressing of cider vinegar, sugar, and celery seed.
Oh my, I am getting hungry for lunch and I haven’t
yet had breakfast.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, August 9, 2010, 8:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
A little bit of overnight rain has freshened the
view, although hazy sunshine dims the dazzle a bit.
We just came back from releasing a skunk from the
Havahart trap intended for the raccoon that
has been pillaging our corn. We snuck over after dark
with the shotgun to try and catch the little
bandits in the act, but we were too early. We could hear
them chattering away in the next field,
but a later foray revealed nothing either. So far they
have pulled down a dozen stalks and feast-
ed on the ears right in the garden. We had our first corn
last night, sweet and crunchy, everything
corn-on-the-cob should be. Today I will spray the husks
with a solution of habanero pepper; then
I need to remember to wear gloves when I pick the corn.
Yesterday we pulled all of our onions and
placed them on drying racks. It was a good year for
onions, and we grew three varieties, red, white
and yellow. Many of them sent up a flower stalk but we
cut those off earlier in the season. We left a
few, because they are so pretty in a jug mixed with
sunflowers and goldenrod. Most of our sunflowers
are in their glory days, with some of them showing
fifteen blossoms on a single stalk. I wish they lasted
longer as a cut flower, but even three days gracing our
entryway leaves a lasting impression on our guests.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
Sunday, August 8, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
63 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
Rain is in the forecast for later today, but I’ll be
a blue-nosed gopher if we don’t see some
within the hour. We have had some god showers during the
past week, but the Tug Hill water
table still hasn’t recovered from the lack of
precipitation earlier in the season, or for the
inadequate
snowpack of last winter. Some of our neighbors still have
to haul water, as their wells have been low
for several months. When we dug potatoes Friday, we were
surprised that the soil was powder-dry
past the first inch which had received plenty of rain on
Thursday. I weeded the perennial bed closest
to the house yesterday, and watered it when I was
finished, as the house’s eaves had kept the most
recent rains from hitting those plants. It was so dry
that the weeds closest to the cellar wall had died;
pulling that batch of long grass and thistle was like
gathering hay that had been cut a week ago. The
perennials look good, but the daisies and pansies are
nearly spent. I dead-headed them, hoping for a
revival next month. Beebalm is still beautiful, and has
attracted more than its share of hummingbirds to
its frilly scarlet blooms. This plant is extra easy to
grow, and forms a thick stand that discourages weeds
from sprouting. I have it growing in four places around
the yard, and we enjoy the pungent aroma of its
leaves as well as the lovely blossoms. Beebalm (monarda
didyma) is a must-have in any flower garden,
in my opinion. We have a potted geranium that deserves
kudos. I have been plant-sitting it for the past
16 years. (Frankly, I think the statute of limitations
has run out, and it is now actually officially my plant.)
I trimmed off thirty-four old blossoms from it, and there
are still fifteen buds and young blooms left. This
is an amazing plant, and has defied all of the
traditional standards of care. Potted geraniums are
suppos-
ed to be kept in a cool place for the winter, and watered
infrequently. This huge pot has pride of place
in a western window in our living room, about five feet
from our big wood stove. When I bring it in-
doors in October, I prune the stems back but not too
severely. I water it every other day, and in
April, just after the equinox, it starts to put out
hundreds of tiny new leaves and shows a few
flower buds. I put it outside in early May, and pinch off
the old blossoms every week or so.
I wish I had taken a photo of it last week, when it was
so full of flowers that the deep
green foliage was all hidden in a sea of crimson. I have
many smaller geraniums,
but this one reigns as queen of them all. It has been
touched by frost, accidental-
ly dried out, dropped, and broken by boisterous cats, and
still it perseveres.
Role models don’t necessarily have to be human to be
valid.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Saturday, August 7, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
60 degrees, calm, sunny
What a wonderful way to begin a weekend ! The sky is deep
blue, the sun is warm,
and all of the weeds have been yanked and most of the big
jobs taken care of. For now.
Yesterday we dug all of the yukon gold and caribe
potatoes, as the vines had died back
indicating that they were done gaining size. We got four
grain sacks of spuds, and left quite
a few small ones in the field. We also dug a few katahdins
and every one of them is covered
with scabs, which is odd, since that was certified seed
from a reputable dealer. That is the only
variety to be scabby out of the eight kinds we planted,
so I guess we won’t grow them again.
Some of the yukon golds are the size of
grapefruits; I wonder if they are solid all the way
through? Time will tell. It is not too early to plan for
this month’s Perseid meteor showers.
The best times to observe will be early mornings of the
11-13th with some others occur-
ring for several days on either side of the peak. For
more information about all of the
annual meteor displays, check out earthsky.org/astronomy.....shower-guide.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Friday, August 6, 2010, 8:45 a.m.
68 degrees, windy, mostly sunny
We could feel the cold front moving across Tug
Hill shortly after lunch yesterday.
All of a sudden we could breathe easier, and the pall of
haze that had shown up when
the rain stopped dissipated as well. The ambient
temperature changed very little, but the
quality of air improved a hundred percent with the
front’s arrival. This morning is crisp and
clear, an excellent day to hang out laundry. We will be
harvesting onions this morning as well,
with the fresh northwest breeze giving them a good start
in their curing process. Our first planting
of green beans is taking a break after providing us with
many pailsfull, and the second sowing is still
a week away from being ready. Both kinds are loaded with
flowers and tiny beans; the older plants
are gathering speed for a second wind. I opened an ear of
sweet corn yesterday, and the kernels are
fully formed and I suppose we could eat some now as green
corn, but I prefer to wait a few days until
the niblets are fully ripe and bursting with sweet milky
juice. I nabbed a dozen thin tender cucumbers
for a lettuce-free salad, and in a few days we will be
able to share them with garden-less friends and
also make more pickles. Many of our crops will reach
their peak of perfection while we are vaca-
tioning on the Maine Coast; fortunately our house-sitters
are big fans of fresh veggies, and
will enjoy the goodies in our absence. Tonight the
temperature may dip into the forties !
Sweet dreams,
Daisy
Thursday, August 5, 2010, 8:15 a.m.
70 degrees, calm, cloudy, rain showers
Rain arrived just after sunup and so far there
have been three good cloudbursts since then.
So far there has been no wind with the showers, and the
rain falls straight down, hearty fat
drops with even bigger ones gathering on leaves before
feeling gravity’s pull, adding variety
to the picture. Water flows in sheets through the yard
and races down the roadside ditch,
as musical as any mountain stream. After a few more
showers, the wind is due to pick up
and usher in a cooler front from the west, bringing clear
skies and more comfortable temp-
eratures, with a marked reduction in humidity as well. It
was a hot night for sleeping, and
even with the windows wide open there was little in the
way of natural relief. I considered
plugging in the fan, but wasn’t uncomfortable enough
to actually get up to do it. In the middle
of the night we were awakened by a feral cat’s
scream, followed by abrupt silence; the dog
has been hot on the trail of some trespasser this morning,
but beyond the cries and scent trail
there is no evidence of foul play. I also heard the
chirps of a bird not too long after that, very
unusual for the dead of night. I heard a dog barking in
the distance, and soon fell asleep
dreaming of dogs, cats, and small lost birds. We can
stand to work indoors today while
waiting for the gardens to dry out; three sunny days are
in the picture, starting tomorrow.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Wednesday, August 4, 2010, 7:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, overcast
Faint fog fills the air, or is it a low-lying cloud? Or
maybe even misty rain that is too tiny
to register as official drops? At any rate, humidity is
probably nearly 100%, and when the
sun comes out it will be steamy and no doubt stifling. I
have an appointment later this morning,
and I can’t imagine doing any dirty work while it is
still relatively cool outside. There are beans
to pick, but I can’t get to that until the plants
dry off. We had a good rain last evening, about a
half inch, enough to do some real good in the gardens. I
guess all signs point to a rambling walk
up the Smith Road and then chores later in the day, if it
isn’t too beastly hot. If the breeze keeps
up it shouldn’t be too bad. We are so fortunate to
live atop Tug Hill, where the wind do blow
most of the time. It makes summer’s heat more
tolerable, and winter snows more interesting.
This morning it swirls the mist around and makes for a
very pretty backdrop to the sun-
flowers that are wondering which direction to turn. That
reminds me, if you are in this
neck of the woods, take a ride down the West Road between
the Markham farm
and Krokowski’s store; there areacres of sunflowers
brightening the meadows,
probably planted for cattle feed. All are in bloom, and
it is a beautiful sight.
Have a great day,
Daisy
Tuesday, August 3, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, overcast
A few sprinkles of rain passed through the area
during the night, enough to wet down the dust
and refresh the gardens but too little to do any real
hydrating. The valley is shrouded in fog, but
up here we can see a few breaks in the clouds, so we may
have a bit of sunshine later. A friend
brought us a basket of cucumbers last night, so this
morning I will be making a few gallons of fresh
sweet pickles. I have broccoli to put into the freezer as
well, since we have eaten as much fresh as
we can handle for now. Our own cucumbers are just
beginning to bear, but it is nice to get an early
start on the pickles. When ours finally become productive,
I will no doubt be delivering a few bas-
kets of them to friends myself. I know that I will be
hauling zucchini to work later today, lovely
green bombs of vitamins and fiber to share with friends.
We have been grilling small ones that
have been split in half, rubbed with olive oil and spices,
and placed over medium flames for a
few minutes. This is a whole ‘nother veggie than
those merely sliced and steamed. Larger ones
can be sliced into rounds, breaded, and fried, then
topped with marinara sauce and grated hard
cheese, for a vegetarian main dish that is hearty,
healthy, and above all tasty. There are so many
great fresh veggies this time of year, and so many
delicious ways to prepare them; bon appetit!
Have a great day,
Daisy
Monday, August 2, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
68 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
So far the month of August has been just perfect,
summery but not stifling.
Our early tomatoes are really beginning to ripen up fast.
I have to pick them
before they are too red and juicy, or the snails and
slugs suck holes in them. We
have been enjoying small golden grape tomatoes for a
couple of weeks, but they are
not yet producing an overabundance. Zucchini has been
growing inches per day, and I
believe I have as much in the freezer as we need. We are
lucky to have many friends who
do not grow this prolific squash, so it is easy to share.
Swiss chard just keeps on growing,
and the more I cut away the outside leaves the better it
does. Now that broccoli, beans,
and carrots are on the scene, we are eating fewer cooked
leafy greens, so chard has
been going into the freezer as well. Our next crop of
lettuce could really use some rain,
but I believe we can start harvesting thinnings in about
ten days if we water it. Iceberg
lettuce stumps have sprouted little secondary heads, and
although not as firm or sweet
as the first cutting, we have not missed out on salads
since we cut most of the mature
crop last weekend. I noticed that red deer tongue roots
are sending up little leaves as
well. I usually pull the whole plant when gathering
lettuce, but now that I know some
varieties are willing to keep growing, I guess I will
leave some of the roots intact to
help bridge the gap between sowings. Our final rows of
beans are ready to thin, and
it looks like every single seed sprouted. We have had
trouble with bean germination
this season, so we planted them two inches apart. I must
thin them to six inches; it will
look like a regular bean killing field out there when I
am done. However, if there isn’t
enough space between bean plants for good air circulation,
rot can easily set in.
We have managed to keep ahead of most of the weeds,
pulling them as we
pick the produce. This certainly has been a fine year so
far in the gardens !
Have a great day,
Daisy
Sunday, August 1, 2010, 9:30 a.m.
70 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Beautiful clean clear air greeted us this morning,
swept by an east wind that carries
the faint whiff of balsam needles warmed by the sun. (Actually,
the sweet smell follows me
everywhere this morning, as I fell asleep last night with
my head resting on a balsam pillow.)
But on a day such as this, it isn’t impossible to
imagine the Adirondacks and even the Green
and White Mountains are adding to the overall feeling of
mountain fresh air. We walked up the
Evans Road yesterday, and noticed a few blackberry canes setting
big pink berries, so they will
be ripe in a couple of weeks. The currant bushes are lush
with foliage, but no fruits. Joe pye weed
is deep magenta this year, instead of the paler pink of
seasons past. The same can be said for the
pendulous odd-shaped blossoms of tall pink impatiens,
definitely more reds that pinks. Grass has
grown in most of the pond at the end of the road, giving
testament to the drought conditions of
early summer, when there was very little water to fill
the basin; there is no other source than
rainwater. It really is just a giant puddle, and long
strands of grass wave above the surface
like tiny cattail leaves. We heard a bullfrog and saw
many smaller frogs leaping from the
banks into the pond, landing with a much louder plop!
than their little bodies should make.
We had a wonderful stroll, the weather was just perfect;
today will be another great
day for being outdoors, in our case, picking beans and
pulling a few onions.
Have a great day,
Daisy
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