1st week of September 2009

Watermelon Eating Today we enjoyed a delectable late summer pleasure - eating a watermelon straight from the patch. The kids and I finished off a 16 pound Crimson Sweet watermelon in about a half hour (we did save a piece for dad when he came home.) The sweetness was almost intoxicating and the three youngest boys needed to change their watermelon drenched clothes when we were done. There are four or five more large melons out in the patch and we look forward to indulging in more of these sweet pleasures. I may try to slip a few halves into veggie baskets but I'll make sure the kids aren't watching. Also coming out of the melon/squash patch were some tasty spaghetti squash. It is amazing how baking turns the flesh of them into a pile of strings just waiting for sauce. I'm pleased with how many butternut squash are lurking in the patch also. They are probably our favorite squash and last year our yield was very slim so we will look forward to plenty of pumpkin pudding and just plain baked squash. Another of butternut's great features is their easy storage requirements. After curing in the sun for several days, I put unblemished squash in plastic dairy crates and store them in a cool upstairs bedroom. They need to be checked periodically for rotting and often I can use them into February and March. I have enough work on my hands right now with canning tomatoes, freezing peppers and dehydrating leeks and such so I welcome things that will store in their natural state.

Trampoline Frame with Shade Cloth The trampoline leg frame has been a real workhorse in the garden this year. After protecting early spring lettuce and then beans with plastic, it went on to supporting plastic snow fence to provide shade from the summer heat for another round of lettuce. The batch pictured was transplanted on a hot day and the plants were basically bare rooted. The first few days I actually covered it with the old trampoline mat for intensive shade treatment and then as the plants were established, I just used the snow fence. I am very pleased with the results and my customers are happy to have abundant salad in their baskets again (they seem to be getting weary of tomatoes....) The next stop for the trampoline frame will be over a bed of Winter Density lettuce which I will transplant this week. Plastic will be again used over the frame to keep things warm when frosty nights arrive. I'm marking off other areas that will eventually get covered with barrels or coldframes and am watching spinach, bok choy, greens mix, mache and more pop up in those areas. The goal is to have the plants reach 80 or 90% maturity by the end of October and then they will remain in somewhat of a holding pattern as days shorten and cool down. Lehmans Country Life Blog I need to decide how extensive to go in my cold frame plantings, whether I will be just feeding our own family with greens over the winter or if I have the energy to plant extra to share with others. If nothing else, I may go sprinkle mache seed in any bare garden spots and let it grow wild.

I also starting writing for Lehmans Country Life blog which comes as a bimonthly newsletter on their website. You can check out my first entry at Lehmans Country Life Blog. You'll find this picture of me churning butter during one of my weekly demos in the store.

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