Hotness!

Sunday was pretty hot, so Rick and I stayed home and enjoyed the AC. I updated the Art Day page with the pix from the last Art Day, and some links to possible mosaic tile, so if you haven't checked that page for a while, take a look.

I braved the heat for just a minute to take some pix of my garden.

My bush beans have filled in their area, and are blooming nicely. I didn't see any fruit set yet, but I'm expecting it soon.



My pole beans are all trained to their trellising. And yeah, I need to weed more around them.



My tomatoes are setting fruit like crazy.



As are my volunteer tomatillos.



And my peppers are bigger than the same ones at the farm. More organic material in the soil? More water? Speaking of water, notice the irrigation going in on my garden. I'd like it to be automated before we go out of town.



Then I went over to Keith and Noel's to discuss plants for their new patio area. This is the "before" picture. We've come up with some good ideas for plantings.



They have some tomatoes in pots on their sunny back area, with huge clusters of fruits. There are several varieties in each pot.

First Tomatoes

Well, the first tomatoes of the season are always doomed to be eaten just a little underripe. Later, when we have more than we know what to do with, we'll let them ripen more fully. But for now... mmmm the first tomatoes!

On Thursday, Bill got busy and took down the rest of the big old dead privet at the back of Buddy's house.



Unfortuntely, now we can see the cracks in the old stucco!

Bill made two trips to the compost facility to get rid of the brush, so he brought back a load of compost in the process. We'll use this to side dress the plants. I already put some around the melons and the peppers in row 8.



Then, Rick C decided that tomato was ripe enough, so he picked it.



And ate it.



On Friday, I made flatbread, and we shared the first ripe yellow tomato.



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Weather Note

The ripening tomatoes are a clue that it's HOT! It's finally getting to that serious Chico summer heat. It was easily over 100 yesterday, and forecast for 106 today. Nights are only dropping into the high 60s or low 70s. At our house, the AC has been on for a week, with no opportunity to rely on the fan to cool things down.

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Salsa!

Today, we ate the first salsa of the season! It's true! And I'll tell you all about it.

But first, lets review the farm progress.

Rick C was only off by a week. As of yesterday, the tomatoes were definitely getting red.



The cluster we've been watching is also starting to color up. Those are Golden Jubilee tomatoes so we only expect them to get yellowy-orange.



Also yesterday, I got the wire up for the beans, and planted the green/yellow haricot verts. This is the "before" picture. Soon this bit of fence will be covered in luscious beans.



The cantelopes are flowering. I also "encouraged" the watermelons to grow toward the gravel.



The corn is fully knee-high.



And the grapes have filled out amazingly.



But of course the real news is...salsa!

Rick C ran back to his house and picked some fresh onions and garlic. Then we picked the first of the tomatillos, Anaheims, and a few tiny jalapenos.



Because it's so much easier to work in a modern kitchen, I took the bounty home to salsa up there.

I boiled the tomatillos for a few minutes.



And charred the Anaheims.




All the ingredients look so pretty!



Then, I brought the fresh salsa to the garden. Rick C. tears open the chips.



And the jar is no match for Billy's might.



It didn't take long before it was all devoured.

Solstice

We're on the cusp of the Solstice, and the garden is thriving. We've continued to have unseasonably mild temperatures, which we appreciate, even if it means the tomatoes aren't ripening super fast. We've decided they are just waiting for the peppers anyway.

I made the first pesto of the season (for me anyway). I had picked one small squash, some chard, and some basil from the farm.



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What We're Eating

Start a pot of water to boil while you rinse the garden-fresh produce.
Peel lots of garlic, then put it in the processor with basil, olive oil, and walnuts. Process, then stir in grated parmesan and salt.
When water boils, add pasta. After 2 minutes add sliced squash. After another minute add sliced chard.
Drain and toss with pesto.

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The pumpkins have sprouted.



On Saturday, I dug out an area to put some bean in along the fence. That area is very gravelly, so I dug a trench and put in some compost to get them started. I think we can tap into the grape water line to water there.

But that seemed like work, and I felt a drop of sweat forming, so I grabbed a cold beer and retired to my outdoor bath to cool off. I opened the Sunset magazine to read an article on "Creating your perfect space"... lol I think I've already done that.



The tomatoes and tomatillos are really filling in. I tied the tomatillos up some, and RickC hit them with some fertilizer, as they are showing a bit of yellowing. We probably need to add iron also.



We ate the first radish. It was really hot, and not at all woody even though it was huge and split.



The pole beans I planted at my house are just popping up. The bush beans that I put in a while ago are starting to flower. Since beans are best planted in stages, we should have a nice succession of beans.



Then, for the Solstice, we went up to Laura's house in Forest Ranch. They've done SO much work, and the place looks fantastic.

Plums!

By now the apricots are done, and the plums are in their full glory.



We've picked a lot of them. This is a tiny portion.



I fooled around with drying or otherwise preserving them, but they are "clingy" and the pits are hard to remove. After making a pink mess all over my kitchen, I decided the best recipe for plums: Eat them!



The corn is coming up well. That area is pretty gravely, as it was where the cars were parked. The corn is really intended to shade the melons so we'll see if we get much in the way of ears.



And I couldn't resist: I had to plant a hill of pumpkins. Nice "Cinderella" style pumpkins will be great for decorating, especially if we get some of that black corn too.



Rick C had bragged that his tomatoes would be ripe by June 15, but the cool weather we've been enjoying dashed his prediction. However, I think I can see the first faint blush of ripening, can you? At least tell Rick you can!

Friday Wrapup

Well once again I got behind by a few days.

On Monday, June 8, I took home another big pile of apricots. Those Chico Bags work great for hauling fruit, as long as you're careful.



As threatened, I set about drying these. Apricots get oxidized, so I used almost a whole jar of lemon juice to rinse them in before drying.



I finshed prepping them and put them in the dryer at about 3:30. I cut each one in half and pitted them. My recipe said to cut them in quarters or turn them inside out, but they came out better when left in halves. The ones that were really icky went in the chicken feed. Other ones were just super ripe and squished, and those I put in the blender. I have a whole jar full of puree to make fruit leather out of.



But by then it was drinking time, so I went to the farm. The recipe said to dry the apricots for 12 to 18 hours, but I didn't get up at 3:30 am, so I just turned it off when I got up the next morning. The apricots still oxidized a bit, which turned them brown, but they taste just fine (according to reports; I don't eat apricots, icky!)

RickC replaced a dead pepper with a Fresno at the end of row 6.



And the plums are almost ripe.



Tuesday was Art Day, so I didn't get any farming in, and on Wed., I took the day off and played The Sims 3 all day.

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Weather Note

The weather has been amazingly cool all week, with some days barely getting to the 70s, and in the high 50s at night. There's a lot of moisture moving thru the air, making it feel very coastal. We even had a little rain last night. The sky has been very dramatic.



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So yesterday, Thurs. June 11, I got back over to the farm.

Bill had gone out and retrieved the big fruit ladder (yay!) and RickC was already picking plums. They are just barely ripe, but that means they aren't squishy yet. They still taste delicious (per reports).



Look at how many there are! Yikes. We're handing them out at our respective work places.



I brought the dried apricots to share around. We ate a bunch right then and there, which is best anyway. I also made some ribs, using an apricot barbecue sauce, which was pretty good.



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What We're Eating

Any bottled barbeque sauce
Equal amount fresh apricot jam
Ribs

Toss the ribs on the barbecue on indirect heat, under 300 degrees.
Cook for about 3 hours, turning occasionally.
Meanwhile, mix the barbecue sauce with the jam.
Turn ribs "right side up" and slather with barbecue jam sauce.
Cook for another half hour or so.
Slice and share in the beer garden!

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The corn RickC planted is up already.



And I didn't think we'd had enough Cantelope/Galia melons sprout up, so I planted some more, and they are up now. Both these pics have my foot in the picture for scale.



The "Big Mama" roma-style tomatoes had been looking poorly: curled up leaves and sparce, leggy growth, but that may just be their habit, because they're setting tomatoes like crazy.



I love how the tomatillos are looking. Pretty soon we'll have more than we do with.



The Rose of Sharons are starting to bloom. Catherine models a blossom.



And I couldn't resist taking a big double shot of the garden in its entirety.