It's a sunny day at the farmette. We've gone dry again after a few days of rain last week. The pandemic seems to be receding although there are holdouts who cling to some deluded belief that vaccinations aren't necessary. They may spoil it for the rest of us.
But on to happier thoughts. I started the harvest yesterday in the vegetable garden by pulling the garlic Rob planted last fall. Lovely, lovely plump white orbs filled with fragrant cloves that will be welcomed in spaghetti sauces, stir fries and any number of other dishes throughout the year. They'll lay in the toolshed like this for a couple of weeks to dry and then get stored in the basement. Depending on your source, garlic been around for 5,000 to 8,000 years. Greek soldiers and athletes would eat it before going into battle or competition. Besides warding off vampires, in European folklore, it could fend off the evil eye. Plus it tastes great!
My beets are almost ready for pickling. I grew extra this year because we ran out earlier in the spring than I wanted to.
We've already eaten a few that I took out at thinning time. Made a great salad with greens, goat milk cheese, pecans and an orange-balsamic vinaigrette. Don't they look fantastic beside the gladiolus?
Apparently the Oracle at Delphi attested to the beet root's mystic powers, which were second only to the horseradish (?!) Luckily, we're growing both.
The peppers are just getting started. They'll be a welcome addition in those stir fries and sauces, as well. I just found out that peppers are actually fruits because they have seeds. Who knew? Apparently there's also a garden myth that four-lobed peppers are female and are sweeter to eat, but three-lobed ones are male and better for cooking. That's all malarkey, according to the experts.
Rob's potato crop is looking excellent. Large, frondy plants that are producing beautifully shaped starchy orbs under the earth. Besides eating them, the Incans bred them. Boy were they successful, with more than 3,000 varieties.
Potatoes can, by many accounts, do everything from cure warts to relieve belly aches to take the sting out of sunburns. Who knew?
Finally, in the fauna world, a ground hog has decided to live under the barn. He tried to take up residence under the side deck, but we didn't think that was a great idea, so Rob stuffed rocks and bricks in the gap to prevent him from using it as a bolt hole. We're taking a live-and-let-live attitude to him, and have even named him Gord. Most days, he's out on the lawn chowing down on the weeds. Which is just fine. He's pretty cute, no?
Anyhow. Time to start the day. Looking forward to a bountiful harvest and the end of this damn pandemic. Until next week.