Delicata Sqaush?

I planted delicata squash for the first time this year and while there are definitely some delicata squash looking things on the vine I also have this:

 

 

This monstrosity does not look anything like a delicata squash except for the green and white stripes.  I think I may have gotten some kind of delicata pumpkin cross or maybe this is just some type of mutant plant?  Either way I was curious what they tasted like so I cut one from the vine.  I know that it may be a little early to harvest a winter squash but this one was starting to turn orange so I thought it might be edible. 

 

Cutting into it, it resembled a pumpkin on the inside, though the flesh was paler than a pumpkin.  It still did seem a little green around the edges so I probably should have given it more time.  It was so large that a quarter of this squash made a decent side dish for two people.  Right now there are still three quarters of it left in the fridge waiting to be used.  My favorite way to eat squash is roasted with brown sugar and butter.  I think with the size of our squash harvest we will need to get creative with ways to use it all up.  Any suggestions are welcome.

Rainbow O'er Yonder

One of the best parts of monsoon season has been the beautiful rainbows that come out after a good sized storm rolls through.  Today we had a brilliant double rainbow appear in the aftermath of a pretty decent thunderstorm.  They almost always are over the hills behind our house.

 

It is so nice to able to see both side of a rainbow.

This side had a vibrant glow to it and the lighter clouds beneath are in stark contrast to the dark clouds above.

 

A little later after the clouds had cleared a little bit the sky put on a display all its own.

I love the sunsets where I live.

 

 

 

Fresh Picked Dinner

The garden is yielding a larger variety of veggies these days.  In the evenings when I come home from work I spend some time perusing the garden for ripe and ready to pick vegetables.  I am trying to make a habit of making dinner with what I have on hand from the garden.  Now that the garden is coming into full production mode our dinners have been rounding out quite nicely.

 

Since the lettuce has mostly gone to seed and the new lettuce hasn't quite reached picking stage yet we have been having alot of fresh veggie salads.  They usually involve sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, peas and summer squash.  There really is nothing that you can buy from the store that tastes this good.

 

The rest of the daily harvests either make it into mixed veggie grill packets or get turned into stir fry.  What doesn't make it on the dinner plate generally gets processed and put into the dehydrator so we can use it in our winter meals.  I have found that the fresher the produce is when you start dehyrdating it the better the end product will look and taste.  This summer the dehyrator has been running almost every evening since the first harvests of peas started coming in.

 

Summer Sunsets

I love this time of year when the light sticks around until around nine o'clock.  It makes for some pretty spectacular sunsets. 

View to the North

View to the West

Giant glowing orb sinking below the Plateau.

 

I have visited some beautiful places, but I have never lived in an area like this.  The scenery around here is constantly changing with the hours of the day and each moment holds it's own beauty.  I can not even count the number of sunsets that have given me pause as I step out the door late in the day.  It is these moments that are important in my life because I can take the time to appreciate them.

The Green Beans Have Begun

My attempts at growing green beans in the past few years have been something of an inside joke in this house.  The first year I grew pole beans out here I severely underestimated the size of the harvest that I would get.  I planted the beans along the two longest sides of the fence in the original garden.  Those summer evenings were spent picking green beans and slapping mosquitos.  During the peak weeks of the harvest I was picking at least a gallon bag (sometimes two) of green beans every night.  Picking was very time consuming.  Then the cleaning and freezing of them filled out the night.  Needless to say our freezer was filled in very short order with little more than green beans.  We still had many bags of frozen beans by the time we started harvesting them the following year.  In fact I think we still find bags of them here and there when we start digging through the freezer.  Last year we tried dehydrating them instead and that seems to be a pretty decent way to preserve them as well.  That way we didn't have the freezer burn problems that we ran into the previous year.  This year I think we will be dehydrating them again.  We still have plenty of dehydrated beans from last year, so I am glad that I didn't plant a ton of green beans again.  So far the harvests have been minimal and I have been adding them to dinner veggie mixes as we get them.  The harvests haven't been large enough yet for them to be a stand alone side dish for two.

Winter Squash are Taking Over

The winter squash have really taken off in the past few weeks.  Almost immediately after I weeded thier bed thoroughly, they exploded into new growth.  I have lost sight of the path that once existed between the well defined rows of squash plants.

 

 

On the end closest to the rest of the garden are the pumpkins.  These plants have been pumping out pumpkins like there is no tomorrow.  There are two that are definately deep orange and about a dozen dark green fruits that are getting bigger every day.

 

 

The acorn squash are next down the line and these plants are growing like mad as well.  They have pushed their way into the melon bed and are slowly shading out everything around them.  I am happy to say that I no longer really need to pull weeds in this bed.

 

The delicata squash start off the rows in the next bed down.  Some how I think I must have some sort of cross because these fruits are pumpkin shaped with the colors of a delicata.  Hope they taste good because there is alot of them and they are big!

 

The last type of squash in the row are butternut squash.  These plants seem to be off to a rough start and have lagged behind all the other plants in the bed.  I'm not sure if it was due to weed stress, water stress, or heat stress.  Maybe a little of each.  This section of the garden was also a little harder packed, so the roots may have had some trouble establishing themselves.  In any case, these plants will surely catch up to the rest in a few weeks and I'm sure they will top off the bumper crop of winter squash we will be harvesting this fall.

 

This bed originally belonged to the peppers.  Now the right side of the bed peeks out from behind the screen of squash leaves.  The left side will not be far behind.  I have tried my best to guide the running squash vines to grow between the peppers, but in the end I think they will just take over that entire side of the garden.  I had no idea that these plants would grow so well in a bed that was ammended with nothing.  Next year I believe I will devote an entire section of the garden to squash to let it roam free the way it wants to.

 

 

 

Cucumber Trellis Update

The cucumbers have been growing like mad over the past couple of weeks.  I've tried my best to train them up the trellis but every time it gets windy (which is often)  the plants always come loose from the trellis.  I have tried wrapping the vines in opposing directions so the plants help to hold each other up.  This seems to help a little bit.  The other problem with the trellis is every time a cucumber grows large and becomes heavy, it tends to pull the plant back down off the trellis.  I am now trying to tie  the vines to the trellis to see if that helps at all.  If that doesn't work I think I might give up and let the cucumbers grow along the ground.  Next year's trellis is going to involve some kind of fencing that the vines can hold onto better.

 

Each vine is tightly packed with dozens of flowers and the lower flowers have already given way to small fruits.

 

Once a small fruit has formed it is only a matter of a few days before the cucumber is big enough for pickling.  Right now I am trying to eat as many as I can fresh.  Once I get a large enough harvest at one time they will be made into pickles.  I think that may be as soon as a week or two away.

 

 

The first sets of plants that came up are doing very well.  They seem long enough now that they are better able to be wrapped around the trellis.  I am tying some of the longer ones to the trellis for added support.  The vines themselves are not very useful for climbing the trellis.  The plant relies instead on it's tendrils to provide support for the growing plant and fruits.  That is why next year this trellis is going to involve some sort of fencing to hold the vine up.

 

Staking Up the Tomatoes

The tomatoes have been a little overlooked for the past few weeks as other harvests needed more attention than the still green tomatoes.  While I was distracted the weeds had begun to take over that area.  In the process of removing the weeds from that area I came to realize that the tomato plants had grown  far out in to the paths covered by weeds.  They were in dire need of being trained to their cages.  I took some old cut offs that I had laying around and cut them into thin strips for supports for the long and sometimes very heavy branches of the tomato plants.  Once the branches were up off the ground it became very easy to find the weeds and remove them  We were also able to use a weed whacker on the paths between the beds which is a far easier option than pulling all those weeds by hand.  When it was all done it looked like a brand new garden.

The first red large tomato is a Moskvich.  Guess they are true to their type since they ripened a good sized fruit before any of the other tomatoes.

The Brandywine tomatoes on the end are just loaded with heavy green fruits.  Many of them I didn't even realize were there until I pulled the branches up to support them on the cage.  When these begin to ripen it will be full on canning season.  It isn't more than two weeks away I'm sure. 

 

We have been enjoying the occasional cherry tomato in our salads and those plants look fairly promising as well.  There are dozens of tiny ripening fruits and the plants put out more flowers by the day.

 

This bed looks so much better after being tidied up. 

 

The tomatoes look happier not laying along the ground.  It will also make it easier to find them when they are ready to harvest.

 

Backpacking Trip

Over the weekend we went on the first real backpacking trip of the year.  It was a rude awakening to the reality of our fitness level.  Sure we do a lot of hiking, but we have never carried weight like this before on a day hike.  The area we went to was called the Rico-Silo trail.  It isn't far from where we hiked ice lake the year before.  We had planned on hiking over the ridge and down to some ponds on the other side but the ridge proved tougher than we thought.

 

We drove up to the area on Friday night.  When we got there it was dark and we had my two wheel drive car driving up a 4x4 road where it had no business being - though she did great! We had many comments on getting the car as far up the road as we did, though we still stopped at least a mile short of the trail head.

This was on the way back down when we got back.  I wish I had taken a picture of the hill we decided not to attempt.  We pitched our tent that night in the small, flat area behind the car on the pull off.  Not ideal conditions, but do-able none the less.

 

The tent turned out to work fairly well for the two of us, though the dog still needs lessons in sharing tent space for sleeping.  He thought we made a nice pillow, but he also made a good foot warmer.

 

The next morning we packed up all of our gear and headed to the trail head.  It was a nice easy hike down the rocky road.  The trail begins by crossing a good sized stream and then winds its way up into a spruce forest.

 

In the forest we crossed several small streams and took many breaks along the series of switchbacks that take the trail up the mountain.  As you reach the tree line the forest opens up into a series of meadows filled with wildflowers.  The wildflowers grow in a marshy soil that you can squeeze water out of just by walking over it.

 

 

We tried our best to make it to the ridge in the distance but between the elevation and our packs, the challenge had proved to be much too great.  We were above tree line and it was getting close to noon.  During monsoon season it is not a good idea to be above treeline when a thunderstorm rolls through and there were some clouds building above the ridge line we were heading for.

 

 

It sure is hard to beat the view from up here. 

 

After hiking up hill for what seemed like hours we finally threw in the towel and decided to head to lower ground to find a place to camp.  No sense in getting caught on a mountaintop in a thunderstorm if you can avoid it. We eventually stopped back in the marshy meadows and scouted out a flat, dry location for our tent.  We didn't wander too far off the trail, but our tent was nicely hidden by the low bushes growing throughout the meadow.

 

 

There was a nearby stream where we replenished our water supplies.  I was excited to get to use my new water filter for the first time and it seemed to work great.  It was easy to pump and it didn't take long to filter a gallon of fresh stream water for our camp. 

 

Dinner was a hearty beef - vegetable soup that was dehydrated before the trip.  Turned out pretty good for ground beef, veggies and pasta.  We had to cook it tucked under the bushes by our tent to keep the wind from blowing out the flame.  The camp stove worked pretty well for a last minute purchase from walmart, though in the future I may want a lighter weight version for backpacking trips.

 

 

The hike back down the valley was much shorter than the one up the mountain.  At this point I think we were both thankful that we decided to camp closer to the car than was originally planned.  Putting the packs back on after the brutal day before was agony in the beginning.  I think we were just on a mission to get back to the car and get home to a cold shower.

 

It may be a while before we decide to do a trip like this again.  It is nice to know your boundaries before you attempt a backpacking trip.  I think we will try again in the future, but may look into doing more car camping and day hikes than backpacking trips up a mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Garden in High Gear

The garden harvests have been picking up little by little.  It was only last week that I started finding good sized cucumbers in the pickle patch.  Last week was also the first cherry tomato.  The zucchini and yellow squash started a couple of weeks ago.  The peppers have been coming in ones and twos for a little while too.

This is the carrot bed.  We have been picking carrots as needed from the close end of the bed.  The far end is still being planted row by row.  The late planted carrots will hopefully be our nice storage carrots for the winter.

 

There have also been a couple of the older carrots that are going to flower.

I don't know if I will actually get any viable seeds out of them, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to let them do their thing.

 

This is the onion bed.  Here and there we have been pulling the smaller ones for meals.  The ones that are still growing have good sized bulbs showing through the mulch.  Some of the tops have begun to fall over.  When most of them have fallen we will harvest them and it looks like the harvest will be a good sized one.  I'm thinking that I had originally planted some 200 seedlings, and about 200 or so sets.  I know that not all of them will be huge, and the smaller ones will probably be made into onion powder and used up first.

 

The tomato bed has exploded and the large tomato plants are loaded with huge green fruits.

 

The celery bed looks much better then it did last year.  I think this variety works better in this area than the kind I used last year.  The plants are much fuller with longer, thicker stalks and are not as bitter as last years plants.  I think I will be planting this variety again.

 

 

The broccoli have been chugging along through the summer heat.  I find that if I harvest the florets when they are still small I can usually catch them before they start to flower.  The ones I miss become chicken treats.  So far the onions bordering the bed seem to be keeping some of the bugs away.  The brussel sprout leaves only have a few minor holes in them so far, though they seem to be taking a long time to start making the side shoots.

 

I have even discovered a sneaky kohlrabi plant where I thought I had a brussel sprout.  I never bought kohlrabi seeds, so I think it must have snuck into my brussel sprout seeds.

 

 The peas are still chugging along producing a small daily harvest.  I have planted a second round of peas at the base of the grown peas so we can get a fall harvest too.

 

The pole beans are making a slow recovery from the chicken mauling.  The lower leaves still look half eaten but the leaves twining up the pole look full and happy.  I guess I will have to keep the chickens locked up a bit longer if I intend on harvesting any green beans this year.

 

The zucchini and yellow squash have been putting out a steady one or two fruits every day or two.  What we haven't eaten fresh has gone straight into the dehydrator since it always looks best when it is freshly picked for that.

 

The cucumbers are going into full production mode as well and the plants are loaded with flowers and tiny little fruits.  I am hoping to can my first batch of pickles next week.

 

The rest of the squash have basically taken over the east end of the new addition, shoving peppers and beans out of their way on one side and racing towards the corn on the other.

 

A few watermelons did get a chance to set some fruit before the squash started pushing into their territory.  As for the rest of the melons......I'm afraid they are buried under acorn squash.

 

The sweet corn has reached its peak and should be ready in just a few days.  I am not terribly impressed by the size of the ears and I hope they grow a little more before they are ready for harvest.

 

The dent corn and the sunflowers are now in a race to become the tallest plants in the garden.  I think the dent corn is at least 7-8 feet at this point and they still have yet to tassel.

 

 

 

Thanks for taking a tour of my garden.  Hopefully next time I will have more pictures of the actual harvests.  I just seem to process them before I even think about taking their pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monsoon Season

Monsoon season is an unfamiliar thing to a girl coming from the Midwest.  Where I grew up the thunderstorms come anytime they want, day or night and last for hours or sometimes days.  Monsoon season here means that you will wake up to a beautiful morning every day with only a few clouds.  The day gets hotter and stickier as it progresses and the thunderstorms roll through every afternoon between three and midnight.  The storms instantly cool the air while they put on an intricate display of lightning and thunder.  The rains can be heavy or light.  The winds usually precede the storm and fade out as the rains die down.  These are the kinds of storms that make good sleeping weather once they calm down.

In the Midwest you always have the worry of tornadoes.  While we do get strong winds here, the closest thing to a tornado would be a large dust devil.  These don't really seem to do much damage, though you can see them pick up small things and whirl them a few feet.  I've stood in my garden on many occasions and have felt the swirling winds rush through.

The larger worry out here is lightning.  Many times you can see lightning flashing from the clouds in the distance but have no rain where you are.  Lightning plays a big role in starting wildfires out here, and the monsoon rains play a big role in extinguishing those fires.  This year I am hoping that it turns out to be a wet year.  This area has been in a drought for a long time and even the reservoirs here are running low.  Not a great thing when you are surrounded by a forest that is as dry as a tinderbox.  Lets just hope the monsoons hang around for awhile this summer.

Shiney New Camping Gear

We are planning a little backpacking trip over the weekend and I ordered a brand new tent to try out on the trip.  My old tent was ruined in a windstorm which was unfortunate but not unexpected.  The tent was over ten years old and had been used plenty of times.  Sometimes things just break when they are old.....or when they are trying to stand up to 50+mph wind gusts or both.  Anyways.  I did quite a bit of research before I bought this tent because it had a lot of shoes to fill.  It had to fit two people and a large dog comfortably - which it can though it will be snug to say the least.  It had to be freestanding because some of the places we camp in are fairly rocky and you can't always stake things down well.  It had to be lightweight because I planned on taking it backpacking with me and I don't want to carry a lot of extra weight - but I do want to be comfortable.  I settled for a three person tent which if you want to be technical is a comfortable two person tent or a one person mansion.  I think the tent weighs in at just under seven pounds which is on the heavy side for one person to carry, but not too bad divided between two people.  It doesn't need a ton of space for the floor - about the width of two full sized inflatable sleeping pads with a little extra head room at the end.  I'm still not sure how comfortable two people and a dog will be, but it will have to do.  It does have a door on either side so getting out is simple even when there are two people in the tent.  The ventilation holes are in places I've never seen ventilation holes before, but it was one of the few tents that I looked at that weren't completely mesh without the fly.  I do want to keep some heat in the tent since most of the places I camp can get into the upper 30's /low 40's at night in the middle of summer.  I think we actually had some frost one night last July so I know that it's possible and I hate to be cold when I sleep.  Overall I think it will be a good tent.  The poles looked a little flimsy to me when I put it together and the pole clips that hold the fabric to the frame look and feel a little cheap, but only time will tell if these are high-tech lightweight advancements or cheap, breakable pieces of crap.  Once the tent was together it seemed to be fairly sturdy.  I could even pick it up by the poles and move it around - footprint and all, so hopefully it will stand up to the elements well for me.  It also didn't take very long to set up by myself and taking it down and rolling it up was a breeze. 

 

 

Harvesting the first Cucumbers

It has been an anxious couple of months waiting to see what the cucumbers would amount to.  I had to replant them because over half my plants simply didn't come up the first time around.  It has been slow going for a while after they sprouted.  With all the heat we are having they have picked up the pace in the last week or two and have started putting out an abundance of flowers.

 

The older plants have grown much larger than the second planting plants and I have been able to start training them up the sides of my trellis.

Next year my cucumber trellis is going to involve some sort of fencing I think because the plants are having a hard time staying on the trellis.  Their tendrils can't wrap around the thick and slippery pvc pipe.  It seems to help to wrap two plants in opposite directions on the same pole.  Their fuzzy skins stick like velcro to each other and help to hold each plant up.

 

There are many tiny cucumbers in the making on the older plants as well.

The younger plants aren't quite at this stage yet but several have started putting out flowers in earnest.

 

This is the first cucumber harvest.  I know they look small but I am growing pickling cucumbers.  If I let them get too much bigger they will start to get larger seeds and become bitter.  I will need to wait until my cucumbers harvests are a little bigger before I can start making pickles.  Two cucumbers don't really fill a jar well.  Hopefully pickling season will commence in a couple short weeks now that the garden is really growing at full speed.