50mm f/1.4
Photo inspired by a bit of my morning reading - here. These came from our asparagus bed, which grows wider every year. I picked them yesterday, and I plan to pick a few more today and tomorrow, as they become tall enough. Favorite way to cook asparagus? Actually, there are two: either tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled on our charcoal grill...or sauteed in a pan with a little butter, little lemon juice, salt and pepper. Yum.
It's finally starting to feel like October, temperature-wise (80 degree weather does NOT, in my opinion, belong in October. Glad THAT's over.) and so yesterday Bill picked some more herbs and I packed them in oil and froze them, like I talked about in this post a while back. This time I added oregano, chives, tarragon and thai basil to the collection in the freezer, along with some more sage and basil, because we just have so much of them.
Bill also pulled the cilantro plants, which had ceased looking like cilantro and had transformed into seed-bearing coriander plants, like so:
While he and the kids pulled up the strawberry bed (we need to put them in a better spot next year - they just haven't been doing well where they were.) I picked all the little seeds off the coriander plants.
This was not as tedious as it may sound - it was kind of relaxing, actually. No thinking involved. Just picking the seeds....
I've left them in a bowl to finish drying out, and then we'll put them in a jar with the other herbs and spices and use them for spice mixtures and rubs throughout the winter.
This past Saturday morning we got together with friends of ours to go to The Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Championship at Frerichs Farms in Warren, RI.
I've never been before but our friends went last year. It's very much a country fair, only on a smaller and single-themed scale. There were a few fun things for the kids to do, including a pony ride, and there was food. But most importantly, there was the 1,000 lb pumpkin drop.
That was at noon, so we made sure to arrive in time to watch this most exciting part of the event.
A crane was set up in a fenced off area and a big pumpkin was lifted way, way up high.
And then, the pumpkin was released,
And it fell down, down, down...
Until...
It smashed
And then the crowd cheered. Hooray! We've dropped a vegetable from a great height and it smashed! Yay!
Almost immediately, people rushed to examine the remains. Small children carried around chunks of pumpkin innards as souvenirs.
Later on, they held the weigh-off. First, they weighed the giant hubbard squashes. There weren't as many of those - it's a newer category, and there aren't as many brave hubbard squash obsessives growers out there. Yet. After the hubbards, they started in on the pumpkins.
After each vegetable was weighed, it was transported out of the competition ring and set off to the side, where children and their parents could pose for pictures with them.
Like this. (It was a very bright, hot, sunny day. Can't you tell?)
And where was Julia? See that orange, pumpkin-shaped cage way in the back, there? That's the pumpkin ride. When I heard there was a pumpkin ride, I thought kids would, you know, ride on the pumpkins. Um, no. It's a hayride in a big pumpkin frame, drawn by a tractor. Bill and Julia bravely took the ride.
They also, as I mentioned, had pony rides, which was probably the highlight of the day for my kids.
We stayed a couple of hours - but eventually the heat and overwhelming pumpkin-ness got to the kids and they both wanted to go home. So we did.
They ate some Halloween Dunkin Donuts Munchkins on the way home...
It was about a 45 minute ride.
And within twenty minutes...
And they were both out.
If you want to see all the pictures, they're posted here.
Last weekend the onslaught began. The tomatoes are coming in. We were getting some here and there for a while, but last week they began to ripen in earnest, and so for the next few weeks, our house will be smelling like warm tomatoes and chopped herbs on a regular basis.
I've got 4 baking dishes of tomatoes in the oven right this moment - with more tomatoes in the wings that will be ready in a few days. And plenty more ripening outside.
Transformation...
And then they're packed up and stashed away in the freezer.
I've also harvested a ton of basil and made a sort of pre-pesto mixture - just the basil and some olive oil, and a clove or two of garlic to get the fun started.
From the garden...to the food processor...
to the freezer. I top each container off with a bit more olive oil, cover them, and they're done.
I pack them into fairly small containers, since a little pesto will go a long way. I'm set for the next two years, I think.
And I also thought I'd see what would happen if I did the same thing with other herbs. So last Sunday:
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
At some point today or tomorrow I'll do a few more batches...we still have tarragon, oregano, thai basil, and another variety of thyme (the above is creeping thyme...we also have summer thyme, which has a stronger flavor. We had lemon thyme for a while, but it hasn't come back in the past couple of years...something to think about for next year. I love it with fish.). We have chives, too, but they tolerate the cooler weather, so we'll probably just use them up as we head into winter. And we have mint - but much of it has been depleted by several recent rounds of mojitos.
Anyway, that's the update from the garden and the kitchen for today. Time to go check the tomatoes again. The aroma is intoxicating....
You're right - there wasn't one. I had typed in this long garden update post, with pictures from the garden, a couple of basic recipes - and at the very end, suddenly I couldn't upload the picture of the eggplant in the garden...and I tried again and again...and then finally figured FINE, I'll just save what I've got as a draft and try again later. Nope. Couldn't do that either. (Of course now that I think about it, I could have saved the whole thing as a word document...but it didn't occur to me yesterday.) So anyway - yesterday's post? Gone.
So here's the shortened version:
Our gardens are a tangle of greens - leaves and vines and tendrils and thorns. It always looks crazy and unkempt at this point - but it's the best time as well, because everything is producing.
We've got cucumbers and zucchini aplenty - good thing the kids like them. And we've got tomatoes ripening - actually, Bill found some red ones yesterday - they're small, a bit bigger than cherry tomatoes - I can't think of the name at the moment (I'm hurrying because I have to leave for work soon) but anyway - two ripe little tomatoes yesterday afternoon. I cut one into two for the kids to share, and cut the other for Bill and I. There is nothing better - NOTHING better - than a warm tomato, just picked. Unless it is a tomato sandwich made from a warm, freshly picked tomato - on white bread with mayo, salt and pepper. Don't go gussying it up with other stuff - no, if you're going to have a tomato sandwich, then be pure about it.
Anyway. We've also got tons of basil, which I will cut back soon and run through the food processer with some olive oil and pack in small containers to freeze. I also do something like that with the tomatoes - I've probably mentioned it before...you slice the tomatoes in half, or smaller if you've got different sized tomatoes working together. You put everything - cut sides up - in a baking pan and pour a generous amount of olive oil over all them. I sprinkle some salt and pepper on too. You can sprinkle herbs on too, but I don't because I like to be able to do that later, depending on what I'm making. But I jump ahead. You put the pan of tomatoes (or, if it's August and you're drowning in tomatoes, many pans) in an oven set around 300-325 and bake for at least an hour. You're looking for the tomatoes to give up a lot of water and to shrivel and shrink in the process. They will cook gently in the warm oil, and at the end they will be sweet and heavenly. It's up to you how long you cook them. You don't want them to burn, of course, but a little brown or black is okay.
After you've taken them out, let them cool and then scrape the whole mixture into a container, cover, and stick them in the freezer. You can use them later for sauces, pasta dishes, pizza - whatever and however. The point is - it's the best thing in the world to have a taste of summer produce in the middle of January.
Gotta go - talk to you later!
I was outside around 6 this morning while the kids watched "Stuart Little 3" and Bill slept.
I love this time of day...I like the angle of the sun and the dew on everything. Here's a bit of what I saw out there...
Now do you see the little pink reflection in the water droplets above?
It's a reflection of the pink rose above it. Isn't that cool? If I had a different lens, I could have captured more detail...but still...kind of a fun little moment in my morning. (Yes, I'm goofy.)
(Mere? This one above is the one I was talking about...can't remember what it's called.)
And that's the lot. Well, there were more, but this is a representative sampling.
Today we've got Alex's preschool "graduation" to go to - that's a bit later this morning. After that we may go to the pet store and get another lizard. The frog that shared the tank with the anole was found dead last Saturday morning in a corner of the tank. So no more mixing of amphibians and reptiles in the same tank, according to Bill. He saw some other kind of anole that he wants to get, so I think we'll be adding that creature to the menagerie this afternoon.
For now, that's all. Have to start figuring out what the cute clothes I can make the kids wear for the song-fest today. Alex told me they will be singing "We love our flag," "My country 'tis of thee," "Take me out to the ballgame," and a couple of other graduation-themed songs like "hello kindergarten" and "bye bye preschool" or something like that. He says he has to stand during all of this (because he's in the oldest of the 3 preschool groups...plus he's tall) and he doesn't want to because then his legs will hurt. Uh huh. You're singing anyway, buddy. Your legs will be fine.
The other night he told me he didn't want to sing because all his teeth would pop out. I don't know where he gets these ideas. But I told him that he could bring a bowl with him to catch his teeth if it happened.
Have a lovely day, wherever you are!
