Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Hey, Cucumbers!

 

This was the latest harvest of cucumbers -- never had so many on a single day.


 Although the plants are looking wilty in the morning sun (they'll perk up again once they're in shade),  you can see this variety called "Party Time" from Burpee's Seeds has climbed its string nearly to the roof. Sets a lot of cukes, and we'll grow it again and again.


 On the other side of the sliding door is variety Merlin -- also from Burpee's, off to a slightly slower start thanks to the snails and birds. On the left of Merlin is some kind of bushy cuke, but even though they said is a bush variety, it's climbing, too. That one is NOT from Burpee Seeds. 

 We're loving having such a great crop of cucumbers, for panzanella salad, for tomato and cuke sandwiches, and for tomato and cucumber in garlic oil with feta cheese. Best cukes we've ever grown, courtesy of https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMillennialGardener and his gardening tips.

 

 

Monday, July 07, 2025

Campari? Close Kin, at Least

 

Last winter I bought a pack of Campari tomatoes at Trader Joe's. Well, we'll be honest, I bought quite a few packs over the last year -- the outrageous heat of last summer killed all my garden plants, so Camparis from the store were the only tomato I was going to get. Fortunately, they taste really good.

Even though Campari tomatoes are a hybrid variety, I'd heard on the net that the store-bought tomatoes would produce seeds that are viable, and close enough in taste and behavior that growing one's own is a possibility. And so I saved some seeds and planted four of them this past spring. All four sprouted, and now are climbing up a trellis.

What I got grows in lovely clusters, and the plants are polite -- not jungly like the Sun Golds I used to plant. Some of the clusters are prodigious.

The plants get morning sun only, and are shaded for the rest of the day. There was no problem getting fruit to set this year, as our temperatures have been in 80s and low 90s, which is good for us. In this picture the sun was a little bright, but you can see how many little tomatoes are just waiting to join me for a salad. 

The nice thing about this trellis is that I can access the tomatoes from both sides without having to fight through the vines. Behind the trellised plants is a little wooden deck, which makes for a beautiful sitting spot from which to admire one's tomato pets.

I've already picked out which of the four vines I'll save seeds from for next year. Or maybe I'll try buying the hybrid seeds from a reputable store. Or both!

 

There are the four vines in Planter Box 10. I need to get out there and pick some of the tomatoes tomorrow morning, for a breakfast of cucumber and tomato cubes, tossed in garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil, with herbed feta cheese crumbles all over it. 

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Our First Real Planted Russets

 

Today Bernie harvested his russet potato crop, grown in a half-barrel from one sad-looking russet potato that had languished in the fridge.

 

Not bad for one potato. 

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

2024

 

I didn't really think about 2024 being The Year I Turn 70, or think of 70 as much different than 60 or 50. Maybe I thought once or twice, "Wow, I really should have had my books out ten years ago," but I didn't lose sleep over it.

That is, until NFL coaches Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll got fired, and the word on the pundit TV sports shows said it was because they were just too old. 

Too old? They're only a couple years older than I am.

Does that mean I'm "too old?"

No, I didn't start losing sleep over it, but it did make me pause and think about age and mortality. And whether I should be running the Piker Press at my age.

Then I thought about what it is I do. I read, I edit for grammar and spelling. I do simple formatting. I decide what I think is worth reading and what I think is not. What has age to do with that? Especially the grammar and spelling. Who knows how to do that these days? Not a majority, by any means. But I do, and part of the reason I do is that I am over 70 -- spell check wasn't invented when my grammar and spelling had to be perfect in order to get a perfect grade.

So here it is, 2025, and in a few months, I'll be 71.

Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick have already been hired to be head coaches again, and they sure didn't have to go begging for opportunities. Good for us, guys.