Today's post features a moderately adequate representation of a bad photo with bad kitchen lighting and a very nice fall garden harvest. :)
Allow me to introduce you to this afternoon's random late season garden haul. I took Philip to the soccer field by my community vegetable garden to try a Chuck it with him for the first time.
A Chuck it is a 16" long bionic arm that both throws and grabs a gobby dog ball. I'm a new fan.
Half an hour and one pair of pollen covered running shoes later we headed into my garden to get a drink and have a look around.
Cabbage soup is getting made this weekend to freeze for the winter so I harvested some of my cabbages. The swiss chard that had been decimated for the first 3 months of its life is finally growing great flags of greens.
2 of about 10 peppers were red and ready to pick, I grabbed the last of the dry beans, a few mini luffas, some powdery zucchini and carrots.
The same carrots I planted out on August 5th. If you take a look at this August gardening post you can see the size they were 54 days ago. I never thought they would turn out so well.
Sure, some of them are wiggly because I wasn't exact about making sure they weren't tied in a knot before I shoved them in the ground. No big whoop.
The beets are also growing right alongside the carrots, but they're a little behind in the race.
if you look at the photo below on the left you can see how the front half of this bed is doing really well but the back half of it the plants are half the size.
My guess is, if I checked last year's garden plan I would have planted something that sucked the lift out of the soil in that block there last year.
I know you like to know what movie I'm watching when I write these weekend posts. Tonight's film is Netflix's Will & Harper.
And now for the wildlife I saw while picking my late fall harvest. This is turning into an incredibly unstructured random sort of post.
As I was picking the red peppers I noticed something land on a fencepost just to the right of me. I noticed it because it was a hawk the size of a Costco tire bay.
Now for the surprise - a puzzle for the first time in ages because I felt like giving you a little surprise but didn't want to have to leave the sofa. The bad news is, it's the bad photo that I turned into the puzzle.
You're welcome.
Have a good remainder of your weekend. If you're interested, to make my cabbage soup I also made a batch of beef broth from bones today.
Unstructured and random? Best kinds of posts. Thanks for the pick me up!
Thank you! Every time I write a terrible, random, unstructured post I'll think of you Alisha. ~ karen!
Thank you!
Thank you!
I watched Will and Harper last night as well. I'm still processing the show; all of it. As a cis gendered person I thought it gave a peek into the experiences of a transperson, of their feeling, fears and interactions with others. It was both uplifting and frightening to see a glimpse of their experiences. A short documentary can only scratch that surface. I thought Harper is incredibly brave for agreeing to do the show.
Beautiful cabbages! Kudos. The rabbits ate mine. And many beets but I planned for that so we also have lots.
We call the chuckit game « slobberball » and Bruno knows the word. I even built it into one of those smart dog buttons to push, along with « let’s go pool ». Neither dog pushes the buttons. Sigh. But they know the phrases so silver lining.
I have one humongous zucchini. Eek. Any uses you recommend?
As always, love your updates!
Oh and Nobody Wants This » on Netflix. Awesome!
Thought you might enjoy Bruno playing “slobberball”. Hazel is merely watching, superciliously.
Cute! It really is the best invention. ~ karen!
You can make soup with it. I think I'd find soup recipes in order to use it. I recently made one called Zucchini Basil soup and it was quite good. You can also make about a million muffins or maybe zucchini bread.Good luck.
I've heard you can eat luffa when it is very young - have you ever tried? Thanks for the puzzle. Just got my electric back after the hurricane went over - Cedar Key, Florida. Turned on the TV only to see we are getting another one this coming weekend. It's clear to see why Florida is shaped the way it is. Wish I was up with you gardening instead of down here packing and cleaning up only to rinse and repeat. But it is awesome to witness natures' power. Makes me humble. Just as you do every morning that I get a smile or laugh with my coffee. THANKS
We watched Will and Harper last night as well. We really enjoyed it. It doesn't surprise me that Will is such a good friend. And Harper is a very brave person. A good "feel good" movie.
I love that photo! Seems very artsy to me :)
I'm not sure why but if feels very 70's porn lighting to me. ~ karen!
I'm not sure there is anything you can do with carrot greens, but these are lovely! Have made cabbage soup in the past but never frozen it - need to try that. Most of the time I just use it as a side, sauteing it with onions, garlic, S&P and a little butter. I also have a recipe for unstuffed cabbage rolls that is super easy to make and reheats beautifully - never quite makes it to the freezer portion of the program because it's so good as a leftover!
You can use carrot tops like parsley or make pesto with it.
Thanks, Judi. We use a lot of parsley that we grow so this is good to know. Hate to waste stuff!
The carrot greens are quite strong and a bit bitter. I like young ones in salad, but the big ones like this I find unpleasant. They are beautiful though. ~ karen
Fun puzzle as always and I AM a fan of 'almost' every vegetable you mentioned - except of course for them there dirt tasting beet thingies. Yuck. lol That ball thrower looks like a very clever gizmo. And thanks for sharing the randomness on this cloudy Saturday eve.
I think you maybe have never tried beets. ~ karen!
Not in MANY years - must be a long forgotten childhood trauma - lol ? So... what do you recommend I should get at the grocery store to try again? Canned, whole, pickled? I AM willing to have my mind changed,and WILL let you know how it went.