We
have been short of rain, or any kind of precipitation this year, and I wrote
about the 1/9 inch we got last week. Well the night before last we got a 1/2
inch and then last night we got another 1 1/2 inches of rain. AND we are
expecting more tonight. Woo Hoo! It has been coming down so most of it is
soaking in rather than running off so that is double the good news.
We,
like much of the country, have been running on the warm side of normal but we
get a couple days here that will be in the upper 60;s. Of course, we just got
the pool set up and the kids got in it today for the first time and now we get
a couple days too cool to swim. We often have the pool set up by the end of
April but it didn’t get done that early this year. Brianna hasn’t been hassling
us this year and I was focusing on the garden.
Speaking
of the garden, those Rat's Tail radishes are producing like mad now. I have
refrigerator pickled some and they are good that way too; which is good because
they are prolific enough that we are not eating them all while fresh. They
haven't minded the record breaking heat at all that I can tell. These are
supposed to have been very popular a couple hundred years ago and are heirloom
veggies that I highly recommend. I got seeds at www.rareseeds.com at a place I have been
getting seeds from for years called Baker Creek; it is a great place for open pollinated seeds ( NO GM
FOODS!).
The
other new things we are trying this year are purple tomatillos, a new cucumber
called Dragon's Egg (we have been growing a Lemon Cuke), and a or the Burr
Gherkin, a cucumber relative that people buy as little sweet pickles, and a
tomato called Violet Jasper. We have a tomato that we love called Fox Cherry
but we want to be sure we have the best for here and we can grow two kinds and
still keep the seeds true. We can't get big tomatoes to ripen and the Fox
Cherry is BIG for a cherry tomato, about the size of most whole peeled tomatoes
in cans, and they ripen. The Violet Jasper is supposed to be about the same
size so we are trying them.
It
was too hot for peas this year.
Besides
the radishes, we have had a couple of summer squash--which is new too come to
think of it. It is called Table Dainty and is a striped oval thing. It is
pretty good but I have yet to decide whether I like it better than the Lemon
Squash that we usually do. We have had problems in the past couple/few years
with those; the plants not producing well before they die off usually by squash
bug infestation of that wilty thing caused by cucumber beetles. They used to do
better before we lost them. I wish I could figure out what to do with the
squash bug thing, we have been battling them for too long and the problem is
not getting better. It is tempting to go for the non-organic methods but I am still holding out...
Better
to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have
no self.
Cyril Connolly
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