1st week of August 2007

The heat and humidity of August have arrived. Thankfully it has also brought some showers and overcast days that have been perfect for transplanting lettuce and sowing fall salad greens. The well timed rains have also given my fall peas, carrots and beets a great start. Some years it is a struggle just to get them to germinate during a dry spell. Oriental Vegetables New in the harvest basket this week are Thai bitter melon (the warty green thing), frog leg shallots, yard long beans and a Chinese cucumber. Supposedly the bitter melon is good in stir fry so I gave one to a brave friend to try it out for me. The frog leg shallots are good sized and will be set on a screen to dry for planting next year. They were a gift from a friend and I carefully planted nine this spring and counted 65 that will be saved for seed next year. Many of my veggie customers look forward to what new and unusual things are available for their baskets each week. This time of the summer also produces abundant zinnias, snapdragons and sunflowers so I have also been making up several bouquets to set out for sale on pick-up days to tempt them too.

Our 12 year old son Reuben discovered a package of frozen ground cherries hidden in the freezer and asked to make a ground cherry pie. Groundcherry PieI looked up his grandma Geiser's recipe, gave a few instructions and went on with garden duties. He produced a tasty pie that would have made grandma proud and was devoured in one evening. Another afternoon I ran some errands and came home to another surprise, a blueberry pie he had baked all by himself (the kitchen was left a disaster but we'll work on that next time). The blueberries were from Michigan and I look forward to the day when our young bushes produce enough for abundant pies, muffins, etc. Pie is one of my favorite desserts but I seldom take the time to fuss with making them so having Reuben become the resident pie baker is a wonderful thing.

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