As I write this, there are tomatoes gently drying in my oven. My freezer is overflowing with pureed tomatoes and pesto. My counters are covered in tomatoes waiting to be processed. I have a line of butternut squashes on my kitchen counter. There are three huge carboys of pressed fresh apple juice brewing into cider (we cheated and bought apples at the market, our tree is too young to produce yet). I plan to call my mother to ask for use of her basement freezer to take the next batches of pureed tomatoes. Tonight we dined with friends on pasta with pesto made from our own basil, a big cucumber and tomato salad, broccoli and three types of beans (green, yellow and green with red speckles) all grown in my garden. My house smells good.
I just came home from a wonderful weekend out of town visiting with some old friends. Anita is a veteran gardener who has designed and worked on her own garden for years, and has adorned it with her own copper sculptures, a fountain, paths and a bench. She keeps rainbarrels and uses their water for her garden, never the hose. She has impressed others in her neighbourhood and been engaged to design their gardens. She has stringent expectations of any plant in her garden. It must survive without needing more water than what the rainbarrels can provide. She will not allow anything that spreads too much and roots too deeply. She has her own brand of botanical Darwinism. She described lots of interesting plants which I have never heard of and of course cannot remember the names of (I asked her to e-mail them to me along with the name of the product she puts in her rainbarrels to prevent mosquitoes from breeding). She will only plant flowers given to her from friends' and neighbours' gardens, no shopping. I have not seen her garden in a few years, as she lives in Newmarket and I don't get out that way often but I am tempted to visit next summer.
We were both staying with mutual friends, Paul and Barb, in the beautiful home they bought last year. Prior to our arriving, they spent a lot of time this summer renovating, repairing and landscaping. They have a small flower garden out front. It was fun to be consulted on some garden design ideas. The only crops they have this year are apples (super delicious! They are not sure of the variety but they were really good), and crab apples. They have devised an interesting way of dealing with the fallen crab apples to prevent a pile of rotten goo. They rake them in a pile and vacuum them up in their shop vac. Paul confided to me that Barb has discovered if she puts the hose over her shoulder while vacuuming, the crab apples give her a noisy but effective massage. I will keep that in mind once my trees produce more than the current two or three fruits.
Inevitably, upon returning home, after a hasty hug to my husband and children, I spent an hour harvesting for dinner and the tomato assembly line. The tomato, squash and bean plants are still flowering, and the basil is regrowing for a third time. I also noticed that some of my spring flowers are starting to bloom again along with my sunflowers. The coyote piss has done wonders, and now that the squirrels are not decapitating them, my remaining sunflowers look gorgeous. I took photos and will get to posting them soon.
On a different note, I am reading a book lent to us by my mother-in-law called The Fruit Hunters by Adam Leith Gollner, which I am finding delightful, entertaining and informative. I am reading a chapter that outlines the horrors of the huge international agricultural industries, nothing I am unaware of but seeing it all compiled together is nightmarish. He touches on the power of pesticide companies and questions how much we should trust the assertions that foods/chemicals etc. are as safe as claimed. I am thinking of doing more research on the miraculous Slug b gone, which seems too good to be true. I am still spotting the odd slug, but no question the numbers have dropped.
Anyone interested in Josh's recipes for pesto, tomato sauce, cider, etc, let me know in the comments!
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