Willie - no way I'd be standing there looking so casual about that Hercules moth! Something strange has left black bite marks and bruises on my forearm. There's a whole trail of them. When I was in my favorite kids' clothes store today (shopping for Tallaby...Yay!!!) I noticed the girl at the cash register looking at me and my arm. Then I realized it looked a bit like needle tracks.......Oh Dear! Spider????
Edibles - '08 - Part 2
Louise! Good luck with your addiction... lol.
How do I know when to pick the butternut squash? It's my best crop, go figure, it's a volunteer from the compost bin. I didn't know they started out mottled green and white. When do they turn their butternut color? Do I have to wait to eat them? Urgh.
Harper, you'll have to let us know how they came out. I wish I had more room to grow squash.
posted on the wrong thread.....will get back to you about the squash! LOL
This message was edited Aug 15, 2008 7:20 AM
It takes a while to turn tan, Harper--but maybe it's a hybrid if it came up in the compost--they turn into gourds, I guess. Don't eat it unless it looks like a butternut should! Louise---could be spider bites! Ugh! Cute name for your your new GD! Here is one of our old apple trees--since we fenced the yard, no deer to pick up the drops, & it gets very messy under the trees!
Harper - LOL re: the addiction! I just took a shot of the tracks - although, I have to say, they look much better today. LOL
Harper, regarding the squash...
I don't know what is growing from your compost. Squash can cross pollinate over pretty long distances. Butternut varieties that I know are usually pale tan when young and get darker tan with age. Buttercups are often speckled. Allow winter squashes to harden off on the vine. If you pick before the stems dry, they will not have a rich, sweet flavor, will be high in water and will not store well. Even though your vines and leaves may be done, try to leave the squash 'til the stems are dried. Cut, leaving a few inches of stem for storage. They will then keep for months in a cool place.
Now back to the chimbly hole and news of Big Foot in the 'hood (I think it's one f my missing workers).
L
Big Foot in your 'hood????? Aw, come on, Lauren, you've got to tell us more.........!!!
See CNN news on line or Yahoo. Three guys claim to have found Big Foot over in Dahlonaga, just miles away. They say they brought him back to Atlanta and stuffed him in the freezer. Geesh
Laurel
Big Foot in the freezer?! What were they thinking? He'd be worth more alive than dead, you think?
Well, I messed up the first eight squash I picked. I was thinking they're like zucchini and that you should pick them before they get too big and become all seeds. Well, okay, there's still a few more on the vine. Ya live ya learn.
Ow, Louise! That looks positively awful. They do look like tracks!
Harper - the dots have faded a lot overnight. They were pretty dark bruises yesterday. I hate I missed the high!! LOL
Laurel - I wonder why Deliverance comes to mind........I will have to check CNN for this one!! You don't know these guys, do you? They are sounding like some of the characters you've mentioned who have "summered" at Maypop this year.
Oh yeah! Druggie tracks without getting the high. You get the judgmental looks from strangers too. Ah, well. Your liver is probably very happy.
Love the banjo scene in Deliverance.
As a matter of fact, I have a very happy liver. LOL
I love liver (and cheeks and head cheese). I also love the banjo scene from Deliverance. Are we off track again? If so, here is a Waltham butternut that is not ready to pick.
Laurel
I never knew what the heck 'Hog Head Cheese' was. Being of French descent, we call it 'Cretons'.
that's exactly how my butternut squash looks.
Did you guys see the freaky things they eat in China????
You have no idea......I worked for/with them for over 6 years.
My sister was over there for awhile doing HR training and she said they had gotten served bear paw and moose nose among some other wacky stuff I try not to remember.
When my DH shot his deer in the fall..the cooks would ask DH for the head. The eat some and make medicine with the rest. No waste...they don't believe in it.
Yumm, Sherrie! Those are beautiful! We are enjoying some great tomatoes, cukes, green beans, broccoli (still) onions, red potatoes and peppers. Good stuff!
Looks good, Sherrie. How about a peach?
glad to see your plants made it Sherrie
Double decker tomato
Blueberries anyone?
There's more to pick but I ran into this and I quit!!!!!!!!
Wow - nice bb harvest! You're not afraid of spiders, are you, Celeste?!
I didn't think spiders lived more than a year, but this one has been showing up in the H. cordata now for about 4 or 5 years (I am guessing offspring?)
I like the zig-zag in the web.
Might be a cousin of yours, pixie.
Cool - I saw this one at Acadia.
I love orb weavers. I think they are the Charlottes from "Charlottes Web".
Laurel
Spider species Argiope aurantia.
Yellow Garden Spider, Yellow Garden Orbweaver, Black and Yellow Argiope Spider, Yellow Argiope, Writing Spider, Golden Garden Spider, Golden Orb Weaver.
Never put it with Charlotte, though ..... now we have a name! Thanks!
^..~. Welcome William.
L
Our corn has been totally delicious - this is the first time I've grown it, and I've never eaten it so tender as when you cook it within a half hour of it being picked.
I tried out a Three Sisters garden this year - it was an interesting experiment but I'm not sure I'll bother doing it again. It's hard to get at stuff in the middle and it all looks very chaotic.
I ripped out the useless spinach and beets that were doing nothing, and I've planted more lettuce in the hope of getting some in September. They were germinating within three days of planting! I've also planted more beets on the off-chance it'll work this time.
My broad beans have been fairly useless this year too - some kind of brown blight on them and they didn't set many pods. I planted them in mid-May and then read that I should have planted them earlier because they don't like hot weather when they're blooming so they don't set pods well. Has anybody else had success planting them earlier? Or maybe planting them around now?
My spinich got ripped out, as it would seed at 8" high. I planted end of May/June. Geen beans did not do well. They took off good, but went some what dormant - POOF. Planted too late.
Jalapenos, zuchinni, summer squash and cukes did fine. 2 blue hubbard plants, I got a total of 2 squash. The blooms all rotted and fell of. Tomatoes different story. I have the fungus/blight attack - yellowing of the leaves. They are ready to pick every other day. Some plants have "NO" leaves. Timing with that fungus is what it came down to for harvest.
A lot of people did not do well around here. My friend is so mad he is pulling a lot out now.
Strange with our garden too. Tons of peppers, never better. Eggplants good. But our Tomatoes have yet to turn red.
Lots of green tomatoes and we have been enjoying fried green ones
Those Green tomatoes have been made all the more memorable by a fantastic water color on rag paper done by Ge1836 of a posting I did of some green tomatoes on my kitchen counter. I will try to photograph it and post it. She is a very fine artist. I love it and will frame it for my kitchen. A treasure and such an unexpected and generous gift. Plus the card she sent with it was a photo of one of her other paintings. That is going to be framed too. She has a great website. But I will let her post it if she isn't too shy. DG people continue to amaze me with their talents and generosity.
Caterpillars ate the broccoli sprouts. No loss for me, but DH is not happy. We still have some lettuce that I planted late in the shade and it is yummy, has not bolted yet. Pumpkins are big and already bright orange. Good acorn squash and cukes. Fillet beans( french ones) still producing a few, but getting a tad chewy. Cabbage got gobbled by something. More herbs than I can use. Some other things like carrots are not ready yet. But pretty happy with most of it. But why no red (very few) tomatoes???? I do want to start making red sauce. I may be making green relish instead.
Here is one of our garden spiders yesterday. Patti
