3rd week of September 2008

Watermelon Harvest Harvest is plentiful this time of year. Tomatoes and peppers are very abundant and hard to keep up with. Our three year old was very proud of the 26 pound watermelon he harvested from his garden. It is an Ali Baba and was quite tasty. I first purchased the Ali Baba seed a few years ago from the Baker Creek Heirloom seed catalogue. It is an Iraqi variety and I consider it a "protest melon" since seed saving was made "illegal" for the new Iraqi republic and farmers are expected to buy seed from the large seed corporations. Hopefully the wise farmers in the countryside still continue to save seed from Ali Baba's and other heritage treasures. Unfortunately our Ali Baba was right next door to an orange melon variety and cross pollination happens easily thanks to the bees. So we'll need to keep buying our pure seed till I'm ready to start hand pollinating the melons to save for seed. We also enjoyed trying a White Wonder watermelon from our oldest son's garden - a good flavor with very thin rind.

Obadiah Another exciting harvest happened at our house - an 8lb. 10 oz. farm helper arrived on September 10. Baby Obadiah has been "helping" in the garden all summer long, and for the picture we surrounded him with other goodies harvested the week he was born. Hopefully he will grow to appreciate the good food, hard work and fun times that comes with being a farm boy. Thanks to a few gracious friends, some of the garden things continue to be harvested while I recuperate and my cold frame areas are getting planted little by little. This is the time of year when I'm not just cleaning up the garden amd putting things to bed for the winter but I need to be planning ahead for what needs to be in the ground for the next season of winter gardening.

[Return to Garden Journal Page]