Friday, July 31, 2009

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly


Plucked from the garden just this morning - 3½ pounds of heirloom tomatoes and a few other goodies. Beginning from right of the lens cap: 1 pink brandywine, a bunch of french marmandes off to the side, hot peppers, a couple of black krims at the bottom, 1 round pugliese cucumber just under the lens cap, and the zukes. At this stage in summer, I'll take whatever vegetables (toms especially) that come my way, blemishes and all.

Yesterday's high: 29°C / 84°F
Today's average daytime temperature: 25°C / 77°F

4 comments:

MAYBELLINE said...

You know, heirlooms are wonderful; but there is a lot to be said for the varieties bred to withstand diseases and pests. This year, that's all I planted: Ace, Better Boy, and Celebrity. Celebrity has always been my old reliable. Ace was a nice, sweet surprise. Better Boy helped to fill in the gaps when making salsa.

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

Yea, you are being frank about harvest. But the joy in harvesting is not limited to the shiny, beautiful and sweet looking fruits only....

You grow a lot of veggies.... that I envy.

Have a great weekend
~bangchik

Anonymous said...

Rowena you really need more room for your garden!!! Is there any land for "rent" in which you can plant a garden? My inlaws here have rented a few acres by a river (excellent water source for the garden) for the past 25 years ... and they rent it for only a few cassettes of tomatoes...
Stellina in ltaly

Rowena said...

Maybelline - that's just the thing, where I'm at (2200 feet above sea level in virgin prealpine land), the only pests in my garden are slugs and the occasional grasshopper. When I found out that there were no fruit flies, no nematodes, no anything else that I've seen written about stateside, I knew that I could get away with anything. It's the weather that I'm up against. Last summer it was so hot and sunny, we couldn't keep up with the zukes and toms.

Bangchik and Kakdah - I would love to grow roselle! And all of those heat & humidity-loving fruits and vegs. It's not so much the appearance of what I'm getting, but the lack of quantity due to terrible weather this season :-(

Stellina - I thought about that but I'm so high up in the boonies that even if there was land available to rent, we'd be having to deal with very rocky, clay soil. Actually not a lot of people in this village cultivate a vegetable garden. In our complex, we're the only ones crazy enough to want to do it. And the guy who lives behind us has those quonset hut type of building.