Summer, With a Vengeance

We've been sweltering lately. We hit 107 for several days in a row. Today is a bit cooler, but it's been a hot week. What can you do in that sort of heat? Almost nothing. Last Friday, Old Spice played the Concert in the Park, and fortunately, it was a cooler day than usual (meaning *only* 100 or so). They did a great show.

 We all had a great time. It's nice to see the community come out.

Other than that, it's been hard to do anything but drink beer. We tried this River Ryed. It was nice and crispy, much different and lighter than Ruthless.

We got bar 36 at Mariscos La Costa. Great Mexican seafood; we'll definitely be back.

We're also working on some fixes to Buddy's house, to appease the insurance company. The weather is really too hot for doing that but it needs to be done.

PizzaQue

Karen and Glen discovered this awesome cooking tool, the PizzaQue. It hooks up to propane, and gets super hot: over 800 degrees. Glen got his first, and had us over to check it out. It fits right in with the rest of his outdoor kitchen.

We were sold! I said I was willing to buy one just to not have to finish the pizza oven we started at the farm. So we ordered one also. Rick got it set up for me. We had to move that piece of counter at an angle so we wouldn't burn up the fence.

I had to brush up on my paddle technique, but I learned fast and started cooking pizzas.

Ta-da! Poor Rick has had nothing but pizzas for a week. Yesterday I made 5 of them. I figured once I got started... I took some to the farm and saved some for quick dinners.

Summer Slowdown

We've had some hot hot weather this summer. First, it got super hot (105) in mid to late June. Then it cooled down for a bit, even tried to rain a little, then went back up to the 90s. With this sort of heat, it's hard to do much. In fact, this is when I'm reminding myself that you don't really garden in July and August. All you can do is water and harvest. The crops at the farm are doing well. My crops at home are struggling more.

One surprising crop was the buckwheat. It grows super fast and doesn't mind the heat at all. We are using it for green manure/chicken food, and we had to move fast to get the chickens to it in time! We built more frame pieces so they can eat half a row at a time. I will plant more soon, because I can get another whole round before the fall crops go in the ground. But this time, I'll stagger planting so they don't all come ripe at once. Speaking of ripe, here's a lovely big harvest of tomatoes.

The tomatoes were in sector 3, and got some shade. They seemed to prefer this. The peppers in 2 are ok but could use more shade. For next year, I plan to plant flowers again, but farther from the crops, and on the west side to shade them more. These Indigo Roses look like jewels.

I baked them with pesto and parmesan and served them on pita chips. They went fast! I also made plum cobblers that were well received.

Jae's mom is in town, and they visited the farm. I guess they don't get this kind of variety and flavor of tomatoes in Sweden.

We went to La Salles for the Thursday Happy Hour music. Apparently this is where all the old folks go to get their groove on. This lady in yellow was having a blast. She was even dancing with the poles by the stage. Rick said, "If those fishnets come off, we're leaving!" It was pretty hilarious.

Other People's Gardens

I wanted to do a special shout out to other folks' gardens. Catherine planted sunflowers along the side of her house. These are all supposed to be under 5 feet tall! It's gotta be the RickyC compost. We hear that Rick's corn is ginormous.

My dad gardens in a condo by the beach. He only has a small patio, but he still manages to grow quite a lot! He's got tomatoes, lettuces, herbs, and cucumbers in pots.

The cucumber produced even in this small space.

It's amazing how little space you need to grow delicious food.

June 30th

Ok so these were the pix I pulled out two weeks ago to post and ... well I've been busy. The main focus of late June was PLUMS! We had a bumper crop this year.

Did I mention plums? This bucket went home to get frozen.

My freezer is stuffed with plums.

We shared as many as we could. Ann and Ed were good for two buckets.

 Late June was a great time for tomatoes also. I love the variety! Black Icicle, Blue Beauty, Cosmonaut Volkov, Indigo Rose, Indigo Apple, Indigo Blueberry, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Caiman, Momotaro, Tangerine, and of course, Sungold.

We had a Somebody Push X reunion for Keith's birthday.

Why is this woman laughing? Well it was a great time for civil rights. Marriage freedom and Obamacare saved, both in one week.

We had an anniversary also, our 30th. Hard to believe so much time has passed.

We went to the Red Tavern (bar #34) for brunch, and I had the best Bloody Mary in a long time.

Went to hear Old Spice at Shenanigans. As always they were fun.

The Spicettes were rocking out.

I got a new rug for the kitchen, in exactly the right colors.