Reaping What You Sow

The garden is really starting to give back now. We're going to have a hard time keeping up. (An old old story.) I'm not so good about checking things every day to see what's ready. I'm more of a check in once or twice a week type. That is perhaps not the best method.

Today, however, I did go out to check the cucumbers. I hadn't been in quite a while and Troy is begging for more pickles because he really likes them. They're relatively easy so I thought I might be able to do a batch tonight.

The cucumber plants look about done, but they still had fruit to offer up. I picked about two dozen, totalling over 20 lbs. Plus we still have a few in the fridge and basement I'll try pickle. (Troy's not so fussy about the crunch so he's willing to try it.) Troy got the prize, though, when he pulled out one I had somehow missed: a cuke that weighed more than 2lbs on its own! It's about as long as my forearm. I let that get a little big for a pickle!

While I was out there, I couldn't help but notice the tomatoes were starting to ripen. We really hadn't had any until now. (Although once again, I was a little late; there turned out to be a lot of overripe ones I had to compost.) Troy planted Vincent Wats and they are huge. The largest topped 1.5lbs.

When Troy came home and figured out I was harvesting tomatoes, he almost did a little jig. He was very happy. I barely got the first bag in before he was slicing, salting, and forking it down. He hasn't had a good tomato in a couple years; and this one was good. I, myself, don't like tomatoes but was just happy that he was happy.

Then he cooked the bacon while I picked the rest of the tomatoes. The plants really got wild and I don't want to say that it is impossible to pick them, but I'd consider calling it completely impossible. It's nuts. But I managed and hopefully the plants can take being walked on. (Can I get a "git'er done!"?)

The other day Troy picked a watermelon and tried it out. It wasn't great. This was a disappointment as Troy thought it was the first watermelon he planted that he was able to get ripen before the season ran out.

Thinking maybe the first one was overripe, today he picked another one. It wasn't any better. More disappointment. (But with less anticipation beforehand, so not as bad.)

While we were at it, we picked a likely looking cantaloupe (musk melon if you prefer):
It turned out to be quite good. Very very juicy.

We've heard rumours that some people can cantaloupe. They mixed it with peaches. I'm not sure I'm going to try it. I'm scared of wasting a lot of good peaches.

With the tomatoes, cucumbers, and pears I picked (more on that later), I think I have enough canning on the todo list.

And no painting today. Very disappointing. I can report, however, that the window trim is done! It went from this:to this:

Much better, isn't it? And remember all that hoopla and drama about the non-paintable caulk? Well, I must have fixed it good enough because all the paint appears to be sticking in place.

All for tonight!