Strawberries, scapes, and our first tomato!

The beginnings of strawberry season, our first garlic scape sightings, and our first tomato of the season have followed one upon the other.

The tomato is fruit of one of the Glacier heirloom started plants that I purchased from Four Winds Farm. Glacier is a known early producer and it had already flowered when I bought it back in May.

Down to seeds and . . . well, at least down to seeds again

Friday night, we attended a nice night out with friends, gathered to celebrate the birthday of our mutual friend, Amy. Linda and I sat at one end of the long table with friend Kirsten and her lovely 3-year old boy, Will. Will and I spent the evening playing with the toy "digger" (backhoe) he had brought along and, since it was a Japanese restaurant, we also had chop sticks, one set modified for him by the chef that had a rubber band hinge on one end that facilitated our using it as a cherry picker for loading lumber (other chop sticks) into a dump truck (my cupped hands ;-)

Sitting with them brought to mind a recent thoughtful favor Kirsten had done for me. She belongs to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) provided by the Poughkeepsie Farm Project (PFP). Knowing of my interest in local heirloom vegetables, she asked if I might be interested in purchasing some seeds from PFP's City Seeds program which provides an opportunity for local youth (14-24 years old) from Poughkeepsie and Beacon to participate in a local heirloom seed saving project. Of course, I was interested, and I bought the following 6 kinds of seeds (each packet cost $3 apiece):













Early Wonder Beets
Midnight Black Turtle Beans
Magenta Lettuce
Super Lakota Tomato
Prudens Purple Tomato
Gogosari Sweet Pepper (a Romanian variety brought here by one of the PFA members)

I'm probably only going to risk a few of the tomato and pepper seeds this year as it is late to be starting seedlings for them but I'll definitely be planting the lettuce, beets, and turtle beans, hopefully, this weekend. Can't wait to taste the results.

Speaking of seeds, I haven't bought many this year as I had a surplus of seeds leftover from previous years. However, I've been remiss and been putting off buying some Golden Bantam heirloom corn seeds recommended by Lee Reich. There are also a few other types of seed I'd like to buy for late summer planting but I never seem to find the time to complete the list and place the order. I still have some time before I absolutely have to order those other seeds but the time to plant corn is NOW OR NEVER!

So Wednesday night, after I did our food shopping at the local Adam's market, I wandered over to the gardening section of the store on the outside chance that they might have some Golden Bantam seeds. And, sure enough, they did! And they were Burpees's brand. Until then, I hadn't been aware that Burpee's was marketing a line of organic heirloom seeds. Sign of the times, I guess. I scooped up a couple of Golden Bantam packets, one of yellow summer squash, and one of French Breakfast radishes. All packets sold for $2.49 apiece except the radishes that went for $1.79. And I got my Wednesday night Adam's 10% discount!

Get yourself a columbine

We don't plant a lot of flowers around our house. At least not yet we haven't. We have planted marigolds and nasturtiums in the vegetable garden in the past. And we have echinaecia in our herb garden and usually a planter or two hanging from our front porch. And we have yearnings to do more. But so far, we haven't ventured too far into flower gardening. One reason being the futility of it. Our day lilies usually only make it to the bud stage or flower for a few days before they're mercilessly munched down by the local deer. In fact, we planted a bunch of Asian lily bulbs given to us by our dear friend Jodi, ripe with buds ready to flower, only to look out upon their chomped remains a week later. Makes you want to jack deer out of season ;-)

But one of our great flower successes is the result of a happenstance purchase of some columbines at an honor system farm stand near Watkins Glen when we we were returning home from visiting my aunt Bev and cousins Chris, Dave, Mike, and Theresa and their families at their family winery. Linda planted them up close to our house in a flower bed next to our well head and once a year around this time they bloom and provide us with a splendid bit of color and delicate beauty to consider. And the deer don't appear to like 'em! ;-) Just look at how wonderful they are!