Posted on June 27, 2022June 27, 202206/27/2022 A paper wasp flies to mealy blue sage. Using the two new wasp books, we narrowed it down to three species of Polistes: dorsalis, bellicosus, or fuscatus. I’ll look this wasp up tomorrow in the pollinator wasps book. It was going in and out of the hollow dead branch. The native black currant is ripening! Pizza with garden basil, garden onions, garden garlic.
Posted on June 27, 2022June 27, 202206/27/2022 a single giant clove This giant garlic got mixed in with the onions.
Posted on June 20, 2022June 20, 202206/19/2022 Will Rogers Zinnias came back true. A little Solanaceae volunteered in the rainbow garden. It conveniently has a yellow flower. Paula started a batch of kimchi fermenting. Walking onions for the green onion. Who is this This friend not want to play
Posted on June 18, 2022June 18, 202206/18/2022 curing onions The Chef braided the onions and now they are out to cure in warm shade for a few days per Judy’s instructions. Thanks for answering all my random onion questions today Judy. 😏
Posted on June 18, 2022June 18, 202206/16/2022 BLT with garden lettuce. Tomatoes and potatoes from farm share. Interesting creature Paula brought us some great new border rocks!
Posted on June 18, 2022June 18, 202206/18/2022 onion time Oops. We disturbed this big beautiful toad. The toad hopped over our onions to nestle down under some bean plants. We turned the soaker hose on after we were done harvesting to make sure any other plants we disturbed weren’t too upset, and hopefully that will keep the toad safely into the cooler night too. Three kinds of onion! The shadiest bed has Inca pea beans planted over Thomas Laxton sugar peas which we removed as they were getting mildewy. Now the pea beans have room to grow. Our supervisor chose a shady, cool corner. Left are the dried Thomas Laxton sugar peas for next season. To the right are Oregon sugar pod II (the original kind I had) from earlier this spring. I am going to bleach them to prevent transfer of the mildew to next season. We also put the plant waste in the city yard waste bins as their composting gets much hotter than ours.
Posted on June 9, 2022June 11, 202206/09/2022 last (almost) of season Strawberries! Just a few left. They peaked back a while ago. Lemon balm is blooming. This salad contains garden radishes and garden lettuce. Butterfly milkweed in backyard. Verbena halei is leaning under the ironweed. The yellow in the rainbow garden has stopped blooming but the rock garden primroses are blooming! Standing cypress is looking magnificent after several days of tons of rain.
Posted on May 31, 2022May 31, 202205/31/2022 Butterfly milkweed has finally opened! Stubby okra seedling Having walking onions as a garnish is an easy way to get a meal bloggable. All dished up. Glass gem popcorn seems very happy!
Posted on May 29, 2022May 29, 2022A very unfortunate season for cilantro here Blanching night! The cilantro by the porch kept threatening to flower, and the community supported agriculture farm share bag this week had more summer squash and zucchini than we wanted to deal with. Right now a single cilantro plant has reseeded and it’s in this crack by the front porch. I think since I found this one, there are a few more out in the raised beds, but it’s nothing like last year’s glorious multiple beds. Here it has received a heavy duty haircut. 59 g of cilantro. Two units of cilantro. There was the 59 g from our porch crack plant and a small bundle from the weekly farm share delivery. I squeeze out water from the blanched herb and then put them in these balls. They work fine for salsa verde, though I don’t have any tomatillo plants this year, sigh. Lessons learned about pot drainage. The zucchini and summer squash in the freezer, spread out so they don’t become a solid squash ice rock.
Posted on May 29, 2022May 29, 202205/27/2022 home Stripey plant hoppers are still abundant. Often on ironweed. Briar observes Shackleton from an enforced respectful distance. Shackleton does not want to be observed from any distance by a Dog. Gross!! The Chef has designed and had printed reusable vinyl labels for his brewing endeavors. Art deco cat, maybe? I think this is a common oak moth, Phoebaria atomaris. It’s on coreopsis flowers. I don’t think I’d seen one in town before, only at home in the woods, so this was pleasing. Correction from Mom: this is Isogona tenuis, the thin-lined owlet. Thanks for the catch, Mom!! Matches the striping much better. Internet says a hackberry tree specialist, and happily I have a little hackberry tree in the backyard I keep trimmed so it won’t get into power lines, but it can still feed our neighbors like this friend.