October 11th, 2009 One of my favorite fall vegetables is butternut squash.
We start the plants from seed in the spring and let them sprawl all over a straw covered bed in the back of the garden. These are the variety ‘Waltham’ from Johnny’s Seeds.
I think baby butternuts are so cute.
Midsummer, the squash look like this.
They are ready to [...]
September 11th, 2009 I love elderberries. They are a native plant to this area, but I haven’t seen any wild ones around for years. So I decided to plant some bushes about four years ago.
They bloom in June. If you’re searching for them in the wild, this is a good time to look for them, as the huge [...]
August 15th, 2009 We are overrun with these things.
An Asian invader, Rubus phoenicolasius (commonly known around here as wineberries) annually threatens to take over our 1 acre universe. The problem: They taste really good. To birds and animals and insects and…us.
I do my part in trying to stop the spread of this noxious weed by picking them. Wouldn’t [...]
August 2nd, 2009 We picked a mess of beets yesterday. Some were as large as a baseball. We grow the Red Ace variety, which does very well for us and they stay very tender – even when they look like baseballs!
Time to do some canning.
First, cut off the greens. Leave a couple of inches of stems attached.
Wash them [...]
July 26th, 2009 It’s that time of year when the neighbors lock their doors and pull down the shades when they spot me approaching with an armload of zucchini. I thought we had three or four to use, but no…we had 27 (yes, TWENTY-SEVEN!) assorted zucchini/summer squashes.
So, how to use them up? They don’t freeze well, and we [...]
