Gator Pam

Yep, %. My two raised beds are also in a community garden, which is located in a County park. It is amazing how many patrons of the park read “Community Garden” on the signage and interpret that as “the public can help themselves” as if it is a U-pick operation. Our biggest problem is deer and voles, though. Thankfully the voles focus more on the in-ground plots than the raised beds, but the deer definitely liked my corn last year. I tend to like the tomatoes to ripen on the vines to about 70%; more than that and I risk losing them. When I harvested the tomatoes above, all the rest were bright green. We started to get the rain that night, and when I returned to the garden the next day some of the tomatoes were turning yellow-ish, but not really blushing at all yet. I left them on the vines, and the rain continued through the night, but had let up this morning. When I checked on the tomatoes again, some of the larger green ones had stretch marks, but the skins had not actually cracked. The yellow-ish ones were the same, although the stretch marks were more pronounced. But none were actually cracked yet. I went ahead and left them on the vines to turn more red than yellow. Hopefully the stretch marks won’t get any worse.

Today’s tomato harvest from the raised beds. These are far less ripe than my preferred stage for picking, but again with the potential rain coming the next few days I didn’t want to risk them splitting. I have quite a few green ones still on the vines. Hopefully they’ll weather the influx of water without splitting or developing blossom end rot. They’re a mix of the four different varieties growing in my raised beds: Black Krim Mortgage Lifter San Marzano-style and Selitz

With the nearly total inch of rain expected over the next couple of days here on the Eastside of Seattle, I went ahead and harvested my Mystery tomatoes, as I didn’t want to risk them splitting. For those unaware, I saved seeds from Kumato tomatoes I bought from Trader Joe’s, unaware at the time that they are a hybrid and will not reproduce exactly the same. Since Kumato is proprietary, I don’t know exactly what the parent tomatoes are like, since they mostly have generic ID names. So, I had no idea when they would be fully ripe, nor what they would taste like. How the colored ones looked on the vine Clustered together after picking The one I decided to try, as it is the least firm. Pepper mill for scale. Looks quite nice! I cut out the core, since it was still quite green, then lightly salted each half. A touch tangy with some nice sweetness. The half where I removed the core was more tangy, whereas the other half was slightly more sweet. I haven’t decided if I’ll save seed from them for next year. I think it will depend on how many total I wind up with.

Yesterday my landlords and I attended a pot luck brunch game party. We brought a brunch enchilada casserole made by my landlord and I made blintz casserole with homemade strawberry glaze/pie filling and homemade blueberry pie filling to be used as toppings. We also brought along sour cream to use as a topping for both casseroles as well. The hosts made French toast, and the other couple in attendance brought a variety of sausage. Frozen blintzes layered in stoneware in a single layer and rolled to coat in melted butter Soufflé batter poured around and over the blintzes Puffy and slightly browned Enchilada Casserole My plate, starting from 12 noon and going clockwise: French Toast My Blintz Cassetole tipped with strawberry, blueberry, and sour cream Enchilada Casserole topped with sour cream Various pieces of sausage

My first attempt at braiding garlic. This is month long cured hardneck garlic from my raised beds. Not the prettiest, but it’s my first time and I understand braiding hardneck garlic is more difficult. The third (and last) braid came out the best, in my opinion. There is definitely plenty of room for improvement. No place to hang these, so for now they’ll reside in the garage.

Rabbit Rabbit! Rabbit!!

My two year old artichoke transplant I put into my raised bed in March is thriving. I already harvested the main flower in mid-June, and we enjoyed it steamed with dinner. Even this first flower was on the small side for us, so I decided to allow the side shoots to all bloom and attract pollinators to the bed. The first one is now blooming, although I hope to get all eight side shoots to bloom at the same time.

I am! I got the account back on Thursday afternoon. No contact from Meta letting me know I could sign back in; I just took a chance, as I had been doing about three times a day since getting locked out. Once logged in, I received a push notification from Meta saying they found nothing that went against their Community Standards, so I still have no idea what caused the lock out to begin with.

Wll, I’m in Facebook jail, no reason given. I suspect it has to do with me sharing my tattoo art, but I don’t know for certain. I filed an appeal. We’ll see how long it takes for me to get my account back, if I do.

Ooo… Seattle! If you have time when you bring your son here, if you’re helping him move in, let me know if you want to grab lunch or a coffee. I would love to meet up.

Pruned the companion Thai Holy basil and Sweet Genovese basil l received during the June Green Elephant Plant Swap and donated it to Hopelink via the food bank garden at Marymoor Community Gardener's Association. Thai Holy Basil Sweet Genovese Basil

I’ve had the original Lazy Susan Revolution on my wish list as a holiday gift for my landlady for several years now. She enjoys when I cook festive meals such as Passover, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. But she always kids about us having to circle the table in order to fill our plates before sitting. If this product actually works as advertised, I’m hoping her days of complaining about this particular thing will be in the past. Not a huge price break, but enough for me to purchase it.

Garlic can be used immediately after harvesting; curing doesn’t affect the culinary aspect. But if it isn’t cured it will rot fairly quickly. It’s too fresh to have a long shelf life. It just needs to dry out for about a month before being stored. Then it could last as long as a year if stored properly.

At the end of tomato season, I hang the cut vines upside down in the solarium to encourage any remaining unripe tomatoes to ripen. It works pretty well. When I heard I needed to cure the garlic for about a month by hanging it to prepare it for long term storage, I figured perhaps a similar method will work.

I was going to wait until next Sunday, the 13th, to harvest my garlic in my raised bed at Marymoor Community Garden on the Eastside of Seattle, but it looks like we’ll get some rain this week. We’ve been dry for awhile, so I went ahead and did it today. [ 3 elephant garlic 12 large garlic 17 medium garlic 12 baby garlic 1 rotted head 1 spring garlic 49 total heads of garlic harvested from a 6’x3’ raised bed inter planted with 8 tomato plants, calendula, sweet basil, Thai Holy basil, and an asparagus crown.