The monsoons are in full force here, and we have had rain three times this week already. It is glorious. There really is no nicer time of year here. The clouds build over the day, and by evening or sometimes night, the sky erupts in a show of lightning fireworks and then opens up with rain.
The plants are all much happier with natural rain than piped in water, and things are growing like mad. The pumpkins are making pumpkins, and melons should be fruiting soon. With the slightly cooler temperatures, I’m hopeful for the tomatoes as well. (The plants are very healthy but no fruit setting in the heat.)
We have a busy summer this year. Yesterday was the annual Rodeo July 4 parade, which was a good one this year.
Next week, I’m heading off to a two-week summer writing institute. Then I have several trips from coast-to-coast for some really enjoyable work projects.
Between all that, we’re continuing work on the house. Some dry wall is going up, and we’re finishing the framing of some detail work (closets – yay!, the bar in the kitchen, etc.).
As much as we love the thunderstorms here (especially during the monsoons), we have come to view them we some concern. Twice now we’ve had damage from a strike. This seems a little funny as the strikes were not really that close. They are delivered to us via our phone lines. Ugh.
The first time this happened we lost a couple of phones, a fax machine and a DSL modem. When we replaced the items I ordered a surge protector for the incoming phone lines and I installed it outside next to the phone box.
The recent strike destroyed the surge protector. Though it is possible it protected something, quite a bit was lost. 2 phones, a DSL modem, a WIFI access point, a small computer and a couple of controllers for the solar equipment. Ugh. (The solar has continued without interruption despite the damage.)
This time I’m going overboard on the surge protectors. I’m installing three in a row outside and inside, one before and one after the DSL modem. I will also connect the solar equipment wirelessly so it has no electrical connection with the phone lines. I really don’t want this to happen again. I’d like to find a simple disconnect for the phone lines that I could throw when it’s looking bad, but have not seem on. Or better, a electrical isolator,,, perhaps a wire to fiber to wire device that could prevent any electricity from coming in through the phone lines.
If anyone has thoughts on the problem, I would be very interested.
Our garlic were harvested a month or so ago. Today I harvested the red shallots and tomorrow the grey shallots. It’s been a great year for all.
After a year of smaller than I hoped for garlic, I put a lot of effort and guess work into a crop of bigger garlic. I am pleased to report that this year’s crop was the biggest yet in total and individual garlic sizes. I embarrassed to say that this was entirely due to luck.
One of the two beds of garlic produced bulbs 3 to 4 times larger than the other bed. The only difference in the way the two beds were handled is that one got sprinkled every night starting in early May. Karen and I took a vacation and part of our preparation was to water the lettuce on a timer. The only way to do this was to put a sprinkler between the bed of lettuce and a bed of garlic. (In fact, I worried this might hurt the garlic crop.) It was so convenient that we left it on after our return. I guess garlic like a lot of water in the spring. There were shallots in that bed also and they too are larger than usual.
Our Purple Maiskij garlic crop came in at 16 pounds this year — double last year. We grew a couple of new kinds of garlic this year which may account for an additional couple of pounds.
Purple Maiskij
16 pounds!
The red shallots will need to dry before weighing. But it’s a lovely crop which we hope will last til winter. The grey shallots look good too, but are a lot of work to peel. :)
I am very pleased with this years crop and am already looking forward to next year.
…and more plentiful on our side of the fence. This cow has managed to squeeze her head between our (unbarbed) wire fence to try it out.
There are lots of baby animals around right now. Calves, bunnies, and quail, which are especially cute. Very hard to get on camera though. I’ll keep trying.
We took these pictures to show how many garden beds we have in now.
This is a panorama of the main garden on the west side of the house (greenhouse at the far left).
And this is squashville (though this year it’s asparagus, edamame, artichokes, corn, and jerusalem artichokes), back by the solar panels. We’re putting in 4 more beds in the blank space.
Things are coming along nicely. Fewer trips to the grocery store for us. And better food too.
There are some treats that are nearly impossible to enjoy if you don’t have access to local produce. One of them is scapes.
Scapes are the immature flower stem of garlic. They come out in late spring and are generally cut off before they bloom to allow the garlic to develop more fully. They have a lovely curl to them.
They are also delicious. They have a much more mellow taste than garlic and are something like a cross between asparagus, small green beans, and a chive. You can saute or steam them and eat them as a vegetable or mixed into an omelet or pasta. You can also make them into a pesto. Here is a pasta dish we made with cut up scapes and scape pesto. Delicious.
scape pasta with scape pesto
The tragedy of scapes is that they are hard to get unless you know someone who grows garlic (and they only appear for a brief period once a year). You might see them at a farmers’ market, but we’ve never seen them at a store.
Brad and I imagine that there are fields and fields of garlic somewhere with scapes not being enjoyed. Some day, maybe we’ll seek them out and spread the love.
