Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

We’re not going back!

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

This fight is for everything.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

White supremacy is terrorism.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: First Fruit & Flourishing Flowers

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: First Fruit & Flourishing Flowers

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Yep, I’m just a little jealous. (Most of my tomato plants have flowers, but the only fruit we’ve seen so far were a couple of cherry tomatoes, and something ate them while they were still green.) From commentor RAM:

Just checked out our little tomato patch, and the first red one of the season is coming on. My spousal unit bought Bloody Butcher heirloom plants this year, mostly, I think, because of the name. My son picked his first keeper last night from another Bloody Butcher my wife gave him. His kids have gone all over his neighborhood telling folks they’ve got a Bloody Butcher growing in their backyard.

Photo, with the Bloody Butcher winking at me through the cabbage leaves, attached.

My wife says her dynamite compost makes all the difference, plus she mulches with grass clippings until the plants get big enough to shade the weeds out here in northern Illinois about 40 miles west of Chicago.

***********

And more great photos from Watergirl, as promised last week:

I included a gaggle of sundrops and also a close-up because someone on the garden chat a few weeks ago was asking about yellow flowers that like sun.

I had 3 bright orange poppies come up in the middle of the sea of purple lamium – I am leaving them there because I do love a rebel.

I planted 3 baptisia last year and the voles ate one of them, but the ones they left did rather well. Another day soon I will send you photos of what I not-so-fondly call “the barren wasteland” where the voles destroyed pretty much the front half of my big flower bed. And then I’ll send another in a month or so once I have some new things planted.

***********
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Okay, this is been sitting here empty for half an hour. I can’t resist: first!

    Apparently I’m the only one up. And now I’m going to bed.

  2. 2.

    Laura

    After a week long heat wave, the tomatoes have surged. Cherry tomatoes are leading the way with some large Cherokee’s still green but promising to be huge. We discovered giant horn worms and will have to be vigilant before they wipe out the crop.
    The haubbard squashe’s are on the march and we’ll probably have to rent a truck to get the surplus to the food bank. Deep magenta zinnias are starating to bloom and give a bright counterpoint to the green leafy stuff.
    After three years, the milkweed bloomed and now they have these bulbous pod type things – hopefully seed pods?
    I’m hoping to find find sweet ripe peaches at the farmers market this morning. I’m craving peach tart. So that ought to take up the morning.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Laura: The price of peaches is insane this year in Misery. The largest peach grower in the state lost somewhere between one half and 2/3s of his trees last year due to overspray of dicambia that one of his neighbors was using on his soybeans. He wasn’t the only one with significant crop losses due to misapplication of the herbicide. They are practically at war down in the bootheel.

  4. 4.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So a friend of mine (a prosecutor) was eating at a nice French restaurant last night, and spotted McConnell eating with an aide. She decided he needed to answer to someone, and walked over to his table. By her account:

    “I asked him how he could do this to the people of Kentucky. I asked him how he could disregard the fact that the ACA is working for Kentucky. McConnell, with his “aide” didn’t respond at all. But thankfully the restaurant, Le Relais, for the most part erupted in applause. He looked straight in my eyes and said nothing.”

    I want to think of things like this happening so often that his meals get taken at home, life becoming a lot less fun.

  5. 5.

    DHD

    If something ate your green tomatoes (especially if it just took a bite and dropped them on the ground) it may have been a squirrel! I can’t grow anything on my back porch except hot peppers and herbs because of the little bastards. Luckily we finally got a community garden plot this year so all the tomatoes are in there.

    The city’s horticulture coordinator said that squirrels will nibble on your green tomatoes not because they are assholes (even though they are) but actually just because they are thirsty, and you can put out a dish of water for them to drink instead.

    On the other hand, a farmer at the public market suggested rat traps.

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    I have two hanging fuchsia that are supposed to draw in hummingbirds and have not yet, a big sunset begonia, and a hanging back of something that flowers in waves, begins with c, and I have forgotten.

    And baby chipmunks!

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I have cardinal pecking at the high in the cathedral ceiling window right now. We go thru this every year. I think it must be in response to a genetic condition as this has to be the 3rd or 4th generation.

  14. 14.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @MomSense:

    Early on, I attempted to organize a protest at the shitty megachurch he attends just to point out to those smug fuckers that they’re not as universally beloved as they think. We had a mere handful of people, and were met by a huge number of off duty cops and take home cruisers from three police departments. We were advised that the very mixed public/private parking lot (it is actually leased by the transit authority for a park and ride) would be off limits.

    Still, the message got sent.

  15. 15.

    satby

    @Laura: Yes, the pods on the milkweed are seeds but they won’t be “ripe” until the pods get brown and dry, then the pods will start to split so the seeds can float away on their fluffy white parachutes. I used to gather the pods when they split open so that I could spread the seeds in a more targeted way.

  18. 18.

    Murmeltier

    His kids have gone all over his neighborhood telling folks they’ve got a Bloody Butcher growing in their backyard.

    That is the best thing ever!

  19. 19.

    HeartlandLiberal

    We put the water scarecrows up a few days ago, after the deer had already damaged some bean and tomato plants. For past 7 or more years, they have worked to keep the deer out of the garden, I hope they continue to do so. My son helped by tilling the garden and planting stuff for me while I supervised, 6 – 7 weeks late, but I was still wearing a sling and recovering from rotator cuff surgery. But at least we have a garden with the basic stuff we will eat, beans, kale, peppers, tomatoes, beets, radishes. I planted some VERY late squash and zucchini and egg plant, but it is already so hot I am wondering if they will manage to take off. We shall see. This past week I was finally able to crawl thru the garden and clean out the weeds, and my son cultivated between rows with the little Mantis tiller. I cannot put weight on my right shoulder, and am supposed to limit using it still in any sort of torque or snapping motion, but I managed to make my muscles sore all over after three days of crawling thru the garden, but it felt good to be active.

  20. 20.

    satby

    Congratulations on the first tomato RAM! And beautiful garden pics Watergirl. That sunny yellow must be so cheerful to see blooming.

    I have green tomatoes, and I do have a birdbath on the ground for small critters as well as a traditional one on a pedestal for the birds, who I notice use both (and both also have mosquito dunk pieces in them. Takes less than 24 hours for mosquitoes to lay eggs in your standing water.) I first put the ground bath down so the baby bunnies and other critters would have water because we’re having a bit of a dry spell. We finally got a soaker rain night before last, but it’s still dry. I haven’t checked my zucchini yet this last many days, but expect that the two flowers I had may be fruit waiting to be picked by now.

  23. 23.

    Anne Laurie

    @DHD:

    If something ate your green tomatoes (especially if it just took a bite and dropped them on the ground) it may have been a squirrel!

    Nah, when that happened to me 20 years ago, a more experienced gardener told me about the dish-of-water trick. So I’ve always kept an extra-large pot saucer next to my tomato rootpouches, where I’ll remember to fill it every time I water.

    This was just complete, wanton disappearance of the lima-bean-sized cherry tomatoes, from two different plants. Since I’ve been seeing a chipmunk in the front yard — the first chipper around here in at least five years — I suspect that’s the varmint responsible. And I *hope* he’ll stop monopolizing my ‘maters once more of the plants are producing, because I’ve always been fond of chipmunks but there are LIMITS!

  24. 24.

    Murmeltier

    This is our 2nd year in our home, & our raspberry yield is better than last summer’s so far. Since the former owners planted them, I had to do a search & try to identify them. I’m guessing Boyne, because they’re small & sweet, & start to get ripe in early summer. I don’t normally like raspberries, but I love this variety. Yum!

  25. 25.

    Van Buren

    My pink, white, and blue hydrangeas are doing their patriotic best.
    OTOH, I will be lucky to get 3 tomatoes this year. High winds and heavy rain knocked off pretty much all the blossoms.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    @gene108: If the president can say Merry Christmas, so can Baud. We are allowed to now, because the orange one said so.

    Beautiful pictures!

  28. 28.

    satby

    @Van Buren: the plants will have new blossoms as long as night temps go down to 70 or below. If it stays too hot flowers won’t set to fruit until it cools off again.

  30. 30.

    Schlemazel

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
    Good job and thank your friend. I’d like to think it would affect his behaviour but have no faith in his humanity. I saw Paul Ryan at DCA a few months back & tried to approach him for a similar conversation but his phalanx of aides/security blocked any one getting close. I had to choices, I could shout out my questions to him or just give him the finger. I chose the finger because I didn’t think the question would affect him as much.

  31. 31.

    Schlemazel

    @satby:
    oh lord yes raspberries will take over if not controlled! A friend bought a house with a large raspberry patch that he did want so he rototilled them – HUGE mistake! the next year he had them all over the yard.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I have squash setting fruit (c’mon Romanesco zucchini!) (the best zuch ever) all my tomatoes are bearing fruit (the Costoluto Genovese seem to be leading the way, really looking forward to this very beautiful ‘new to me’ tomato) tho the plants are not as full as I am used to. The beans all look healthy and the hot peppers are coming along fine. My lone survivor sweet pepper says. “I’m not dead yet.”

  33. 33.

    Schlemazel

    We have been picking cherries for most of the week. Picking is the easy part, pitting is literally the pits. Here is a picture of Fridays haul:
    CHERRIES
    it reduced to 3 gallons. We picked the same amount Tuesday and Thursday and have at least that many more to go from our two small trees. When I planted them I simply hoped the birds would leave us enough for a couple of pies but nothing is eating them – of course.

  34. 34.

    satby

    @Schlemazel: I have lots of cherries that I got over the last two days at the farmer’s market. Now faced with pitting them for something, but not sure what. Don’t really want to make a pie.

    Edited to add: what variety of tree did you plant?

  35. 35.

    debbie

    The magnolias here didn’t bloom at all because of a late freeze, but yesterday I noticed a small number of blooms peeking through the very thick green foliage. I don’t remember this happening before, but I like it.

  38. 38.

    Jeff

    @Schlemazel: Birds don’t seem to like them all that much. Neither do squirrels. A few times I got 25 pitted quarts off one tree. Have you gotten cherry maggots yet?

  39. 39.

    debbie

    @Van Buren:

    There are so many hydrangeas blooming here this year. Amazing what a mild winter can do; some plants hadn’t bloomed at all for a couple years. I was afraid people would start tearing them out.

  41. 41.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Schlemazel: The cherries look bounteous and beautiful!

    We have one pear growing on our little pear tree in the high desert. I harvested three cherry tomatoes last week and have been eating chard and beets greens for a while. One butternut squash plant is thriving and a few zucchini seedlings survived the birds. I’m doing carrots and potatoes for the first time (the latter in a grow bag); am curious to see how they turn out.

    Finally, we had our first precipitation in over seven weeks yesterday. Some in the form of hail, but it doesn’t look like much damage was done. Today is our last chance for another rainfall in a while, according to the forecasts. Fingers crossed.

  43. 43.

    Florida Frog

    Our north Florida garden hit its stride in April with tomatoes, kale, tat soi, lettuces and baby pak choi. July is when we put most of the garden to bed until the fall planting in October. It’s just too hot for anything to set fruit. Yesterday, I pulled all the cucumber and tomato plants. We still have eggplants and peppers but I won’t get another good tomato for months. Alas.

  44. 44.

    Schlemazel

    @satby:
    Montmorency – they are tart & really need sugar to make them more cherry flavored.
    Daughter & her man are visiting & she made a cherry BBQ sauce we had on ribs last night. We talk about jam every year but are not big jam eaters so we have never done it. This year we might because we also talk about using the jam as little gifts to friends & neighbors. I like cherry soup a couple times every year. I have made cherry salsa.

    But the range of things we have found is fairly small once you get past pie/tart/crumble dessert territory.

  45. 45.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I have a question, and the Garden Chat seems like the perfect place to ask it. I’m writing a story, and I need an aromatic, tropical or semi-tropical flowering plant that would be a part of a garden. The setting is near future, and in a somewhat northern city (Philadelphia area, maybe), and having this flower growing outside there is intended to establish that a certain amount of global warming has occurred. It’s also intended to help establish the protagonist’s very enhanced senses that she notices the smell walking to the door of the house.

    Any help?

  46. 46.

    Schlemazel

    @Jeff:
    Yes we get those little worms. I have to be careful when pitting as we have friends who are vegetarian :)

  51. 51.

    Oldgold

    Some, like my neighbor from Hell, Deedee Plorable, she of the sulphuric scent, might see West of Eden as a testament to piss poor planning, pathetic procrastination and pedantic posturing.

    My response, it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL.

  52. 52.

    Immanentize

    Weeding. I got half the garden weeded last Sunday and the herb garden Wednesday. Weeding the tomato garden half today ?. If it isn’t too hot….

    No ‘ maters yet. Too early, but I have a few great zucchini and two nice Anaheim peppers that I need to get off the plants so they can grow

    My “Satby” yellow pear tomato plants in the box are doing very nicely. Thanks, Satby! I’ll send a picture to AL when they fruit.

  56. 56.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby: That looks like a fun gadget. I’ve never done any canning, so can’t justify its acquisition yet. On the other hand, we got an awesome Cuisinart ice cream maker as a wedding present and I made strawberries and buttermilk and dark chocolate ice cream this week. Both to die for.

  57. 57.

    satby

    @Immanentize: I’m so honored to have a box tomato named after me (I think ?).
    Mine are also doing well, better than the ones planted in the garden bed. But that’s probably because I bought the potting soil that has fertilizer.

  59. 59.

    Immanentize

    @O. Felix Culpa: I have one of those and my favorite to make is lavender ice cream with chocolate chips. Mmmm. I think I will do that for the fourth!

  60. 60.

    glaukopis

    @satby: that looks great! I may get one next year when I don’t have shoulder issues. About the cherries, there’s always drying or freezing after pitting, then eating in oatmeal in the winter.

  61. 61.

    satby

    @O. Felix Culpa: well, unless you just make freezer or refrigerator jelly, you still have to water bath process the jars when you’ve filled them. What the Ball machine does is spare you the endless stirring over a boiling pot of syrup and fruit, testing for jell stage constantly. Since I bought that thing, I’ve never had a failed batch of jelly. Though the failed batches did make nice pancake syrup.

  64. 64.

    satby

    @glaukopis: I love mine, though I only hauled it out once last year, to make ruby red grapefruit jelly when exchange daughter Valentina opened a big jug of that juice and then didn’t like it at all. I made jelly with the remainder, and it was delish.

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: You could use the idea to add a Falkner reference — Lemon Verbena
    More herb than flower, although it does flower. Really doesn’t grow outside the drier parts of the South

    And Falkner!

  66. 66.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby: I’ve never made jelly or jam either. I avoided certain types of domesticity in my wastrel youth. But you are an inspiration! I might give this culinary art form a try.

  67. 67.

    satby

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Not good with tropical flowers, but wishing you a belated Happy Birthday! Sorry it was a bit disappointing, but it’s not you. It doesn’t seem like people go out to planned events too often any more.

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: My failed pre Ball machine jellies made for a nice wall patch. Seriously folks, that machine is the shit.

  69. 69.

    Raven

    The sun (if you could see it) is just up at the beach. My brother explained that this is typical June weather down here with overcast much of the day. The funeral was nice. My BIL was a hard partying, harley riding, truck driver who always had a good time and it was reflected in the testimonials. The preacher was pretty funny when he commented at the end “I have a completely different perspective of him now”! I’m going to hit the water one last time and they hang with the fam. Oh, nice flowers.

  71. 71.

    satby

    @O. Felix Culpa: I started as a way to reduce the ridiculous amouts of sugar in the jelly my kids would eat. I seldom make it often, but a bumper crop and homemade gifts are not to be passed up.

  74. 74.

    Immanentize

    @O. Felix Culpa: It is just a simple light custard vanilla chocolate chip ice cream (no vanilla beans, just extract but ymmv), and three good tablespoons of finely minced fresh lavender. For this recipe, get the smallest pieces of the highest quality dark chocolate chips you can find. Small pieces not shavings…. They should melt in your mouth rather than need chewing.

  78. 78.

    RAM

    @satby: This looks to be a bumper crop year for tomatoes around these parts. I love the things. I remember when I was a kid out on the farm and my dad would pick one for him and one for me, and we’d sit in the shade out by the barn. My dad always seemed to have one of those little blue Morton salt shaker things in his pocked, and we’d lick our tomatoes’ skins so the salt would stick and take big juicy bites. Those were the days…

  90. 90.

    rmthunter

    “. . . something ate them while they were still green.”

    Squirrels. The last time I had a garden in the city, it was an ongoing battle with the squirrels, who had a thing for green tomatoes. I finally had to cover them.

  91. 91.

    Gvg

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: gardenia. They can perfume a whole garden. Currently a few specially bred cultivars may survive Virginia I think. Lower south grows them easily. Huge bushes in Florida.

  92. 92.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @JPL:

    Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
    ·
    Jul 1

    Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?

    Oh, I don’t know Donald, maybe people’s private identities? Christ

  96. 96.

    Laura

    @rikyrah: Good morning!@satby: Thanks, I’ll make sure and keep a close eye and turn then into seed balls with some dirt -it’s how I got mine in the first place. A friend is in the Xerxes Society -save the Monarch Butterflies.

  98. 98.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty:

    He’s always been a physical coward. Back when he was a mere local official and I was in my early 20s, I followed him out of a public meeting and called him a “Howdy Doody looking motherfucker” to his face – he said nothing and just scurried into his car.

  101. 101.

    Laura

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: if your setting is wintertime, I’d recommend you consider the Daphne. My late mother would move the pot next to the front door. It is a green and leafy plant with tiny clusters of pink and white flowers. In the very dead of winter nights the scent was enchanting and fragrant, more so because it was so unexpected.

  103. 103.

    Gvg

    @Laura: daphne actually doesn’t like heat, especially humid heat and grows fairly far north. It’s a Mediterranean climate plant that will do well in California but not most of the South.

  105. 105.

    Gvg

    @Karen: camillia’s are mostly unscented. A few have been bred recently that have some scent but not much and not widely grown. sorry.

  106. 106.

    Karen

    @Gvg: realized was thinking gardenia after the fact. I need my coffee, good excuse?
    Too cold here to have jasmine in anything other than pots, so on porch, covered with blossoms and planned on opening windows to enjoy. the wind from thunderstorms stripped all the blossoms

  107. 107.

    Karen

    first batch of tomato plants were killed by freeze, so had to start over. the snow peas just started to bloom and the short heat wave killed the chinese cabbage and leeks. the only thing that still looks good are weeds and potatoes

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Thanks for the report.

    Too often important politicians think that once they achieve enough power then opinions of actual voters don’t matter. Kudos to your friend.

    Women are going to save us all, if we let them, and if we work with them.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Waratah

    @satby: I like to make preserves using lemon to add to natural pectin as I like big chunks of fruit. Will this jammer do this?

  110. 110.

    Waratah

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: gardenia, highly perfumed bush. Plumeria is highly scented but is like a tree the branches are unusual. Not a large tree. My mother had both growing in her yard. She called the plumeria frangipenni.

  111. 111.

    chris

    @jeffreyw: Very late to this but since no one answered, have you tried unplugging your tomato… Oops, wrong thread!
    Do you feed your potted plants? If not, run to the store because that could be malnutrition but it’s hard to say from the pic. Chemical or organic, your choice but potted plants need to be fed. While you’re at the store get an anti-fungal spray. Anne Laurie has mentioned Serenade and I like it too, organic and easy to use.

    HTH

  112. 112.

    WaterGirl

    @satby: cherry popcycles! I made ones that were 2/3 white peaches and 1/3 tart cherries from my tree, and they were killer.

  119. 119.

    J R in WV

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    Night Blooming Jasmine. Common in Key West in the 1970s, we didn’t smell much of it when we went back for a visit a couple of years ago – too hot someone said.

    ETA: I’ve been beaten to that suggestion…. Rats!

  121. 121.

    NCSteve

    @DHD: The voracious little bastards have literally wiped out my entire tomato patch. Had to replant several because all of the rain we’ve had this summer killed them. When they finally began bearing, the squirrels went crazy on them, to the point of apparently pulling them out by the root and dragging them away. (I may be doing them an injustice on that last one. It’s possible the increasingly bold and fat raccoon who considers my yard his territory may be implicated in that crime.)

    I have one last Cherokee Purple plant in a container on my deck and they’ve pulled all of the green tomatoes off of it and eaten them down to a final shred of bottom peel.

    I’m going to be eating farmer’s market tomatoes only this summer for the first time in years.

    I honestly have never seen them so brazen, out of control and voracious (a word I knowingly use twice) as they’ve been this year. You can’t bribe them into submission with squirrel block, you can’t keep them out, can’t scare them away. Bird feeder, tomatoes, even the basil, which one specific one of them has become addicted to.

  122. 122.

    Caphilldcne

    @Gvg: I had a gardenia in DC and it was indeed very fragrant. But specially bred to survive winter and it didn’t actually produce many flowers. Also it died in the midst of several ice storms about 4-5 years ago.

  123. 123.

    Caphilldcne

    @Gvg: I appear to be obsessed with this question but I replaced the gardenia with a daphne (again D.C. so 2 hours south of Philly) and I have to say it’s luxurious in terms of interesting waxy leaves but produces blooms for maybe a week and the scent is nice but not very strong. i think it’s last bloom was March?

  124. 124.

    J R in WV

    I had watched my Grandma make and can stuff, but never picked up on timing and such necessary for success details. She had been doing it for 60 years and had the timing and mixing all down pat.

    Then I worked for a local public TV station as a production assistant. They had no studio (too expensive) and so had a remote truck and portable equipment, we did all our shows on site, from drama in old theaters and closed asylums to educational TV in schools during the summer.

    One show was “Home Preserving” and ladies who worked for ag service dried things, canned stuff, froze stuff, and at the end of a show, much of it was shared around. They made much more than one set of everything, so that in 27 minutes of taping straight through the audience got to see early prep, mixing, stirring, canning or freezing or whatever, clear through to eating some and smacking lips for the audience.

    Home made bread with just completed jams and jellies, soup or stem made with just dried beans, etc. We also did a sewing show which didn’t interest me nearly as much, but which ran for years and years – “A Bit with Knit” about the differences between sewing with woven fabric and knited fabrics.

    The food show was the nuts, though. I also did veg prep in a Navy Galley briefly, 75 pounds of chopped onions, 40 pounds of minced celery, 30 of sliced tomatoes, etc. That was interesting too. And now I enjoy cooking for Mrs J and me.

  125. 125.

    sacrablue

    @Laura: Really late responding…I got really great peaches and nectarines at the farmer’s market at 9th and P Sts. I went during lunch break every Tuesday while I was on jury duty. I got stone fruit mix and match for $1/lb. It was great sitting in the jury box with everyone able to smell my produce.

  126. 126.

    Laura

    @sacrablue: I’ve been Jonesing since last Sunday but too busy at work to hit the Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
    It’s a rare occasion I miss the Sunday WX.
    Greetings from the edge if the grid!@OzarkHillbilly:
    I was thinking of you when at the market. I’m planning an homage to Chef Pannise with short tart crust, a scrap of Almond filling and just skinned & peeled peaches.

  127. 127.

    sacablue

    @Laura: I just wish I lived closer. I hit the Roseville farmer’s market once or twice a month, but it is very small. I love the pesto lady.

  128. 128.

    SWMBO

    Haven’t seen this mentioned yet but raccoons carry leptospirosis in their urine. If you have pets that walk through it, it can be deadly. It is part of the yearly shots but some animals can’t tolerate it. If your pets go anywhere near where the raccoons get to, make sure their shots are up to date. My PSA for the day.
    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Give her a big thumbs up from the jackals. @OzarkHillbilly: I bought a box of 12 peaches at Trader Joe’s for $3.99. They were tasty and just right. Made a nice cobbler.

  129. 129.

    TerryC

    On my farm we grow black walnuts. This time of year we are harvesting the green, immature fruit, inside which the nutshell has not yet begun to harden. I’ve plucked about 10 gallons of fruit so far, we train a number of trees to have low branches. From them we make Nocino and Vin de Noir, and we also pickle them and preserve them in syrup for desserts – the resulting syrup is delicious.

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