The Waiting is Over

I harvested my first melons today: three Korean Star. I ate one tonight. It reminded me of an episode from "The Odd Couple" where Oscar and Felix take a holiday in the tropics. Oscar quickly embraces the local custom of devouring a mango, face first in the fruit, juice flying everywhere, Felix shaking his head in disgust, saying, "Oh, Oscar!"

That's kind of the way it was for me. The rind on my Korean Star was so thin, I ate most of that, too.

Korean Star melons, about the size of a large mango.

I've been waiting 11 months for this. I thought about it all winter, prepared for it all spring, sweated over it all summer, and at last ... perfection never tasted so sweet.

I grew Korean Star melons once before in 2010, but produced only two mature melons. The seed packet said Kincho, but that variety is just 50 days to harvest. Here is how long it took this year to grow a Korean Star:

• May 7: Seeded melons in a flower pot tray.
• May 27: Transplanted seedlings into individual, 3-inch pots.
• June 28: Planted melon starts in the community garden.
• August 31: Harvested the first melon.

This plant produced three melons. I harvested the top one today.
I have four Korean Star plants and expect to harvest 10 or 11 fruit.

Remember what this plant looked like as a pup on July 6?

Rustic Tableau

The Delicata seed experiment is nearing an end. This is probably the most interesting part of my experience this season. I like the science of gardening. If I manage to grow something good to eat, that is a bonus.

The parent fruit looked like the oblong one in front.
The progeny were hybrids of various shapes and sizes.

As I noted before, the results of planting seed from a cross-pollinated source are unpredictable. Besides getting four different types of squash from one seed donor, each plant's production was different. The plants that grew Delicata squash were the least productive, even though that variety was the original seed source. A couple of the plants' production was negligible, while one plant that produced acorn-type squash yielded about 10 fruit on one plant. The oddball squash, which has green ribbing like Delicata but matured to a light orange skin, produced four large fruits and recently set a couple of new ones. For perspective in the photo, the Delicata squash is about 8 inches long. The dumpling squash are about the size of a baseball.

High Moon

I have written in the past about a raccoon and striped skunk that visit my backyard for food. In the past six weeks, I have greatly increased the amount of food I put out because I have seen a family of raccoons, up to five at one time, come for chow. I also suspected there might be more than one skunk, but could not verify it. About a month ago, a skunk and raccoon milled around foodland at the same time before the raccoon kind of chased off the skunk. I say kind of because when the raccoon exhibited some aggressive behavior, the skunk sort of shrugged and wandered off.

As the nights have become shorter, it is harder to see this activity. I stand on my back porch with binoculars. Even after dark, I can still see okay. Foodland is about 60 feet from my back porch. I put out sunflower seeds and dry cat food for the skunk, dry cat and dog food for the raccoon. Sometimes they get treats, such as melon or chopped up zucchini. Tomorrow will be leftover stew night.

Tonight was a grand spectacular. It was clear with a three-quarter moon. The wildlife viewing was superb. This is what I saw:

I got home about 8:45 p.m., still twilight, but getting dark fast. I could hear something rustling around in the bushes and knew the critters were about. I have gained a sixth sense about their presence: I know when they are there. The skunk has come by the past three or four nights at exactly the same time. The raccoon is not far behind.

I dumped a 16-ounce coffee can full of sunflower seeds and cat food for the skunk and a 16-ounce coffee can full of cat and dog food for the raccoon. Within five minutes the skunk arrived and began eating his pile of food. After a few minutes, something startled the skunk and it took off. I saw one of the neighbors' cats on my lawn. I chased off the cat, then another. There are several neighborhood cats who use and abuse my property. I love cats, I just don't like it when they go after the birds or chase off my skunk friend.

A few minutes later, the raccoon showed up and started eating the skunk's food instead of his own. Then the skunk returned. The skunk made a few aggressive lunges at the raccoon (who is a lot bigger), but the raccoon wouldn't leave. So the skunk decided to make peace, sidled up to the raccoon and began to eat. Raccoon and skunk, side by side, foodland chums.

The raccoon finally wandered over to his own pile of food and began to eat. The skunk eventually left. A few minutes later, the raccoon went back to eating the skunk's food, but this time with a companion: a smaller, obviously juvenile, raccoon. 

The two raccoons kept eating until the skunk returned again, this time with re-enforcements: another skunk. There was a short truce while all four of them ate together. When I say together, I mean shoulder to shoulder, right next to each other, like lions and buzzards working on the same wildebeest carcass.

One of the skunks started to do his aggressive lunging thing again and both raccoons darted off. I left the scene with the two skunks eating in tandem, heads down, tails up, white stripes illuminated by the moon.

Dans le Jardin

The spell of hot weather pushed along the winter squash. Most of it and the pumpkins can be harvested soon. There are two bush variety acorn squash that took a while to set, so they will be the last winter squash to ripen.

A fleet of Rouge vif d'Etampes pumpkins for Cinderella's night out.

A Prescott Fond Blanc melon looking very squash-like.

A Hot One

It has been hot all week, with temperatures pushing into the high 90s. The next couple of days are supposed to be the first consecutive 100-degree days since July 2009. That is a good indicator of how lousy the summer weather has been the past three years.

I have begun harvesting tomatoes, although it still will be a week or so before the plants ripen a lot of fruit. Regardless of the variety, all of the tomatoes at the garden site ripen around the same time. Everyone gets loaded down with tomatoes and can't give them away fast enough.

Production is a little sketchy this year. I've harvested quite a few cucumbers, and there might be a second, smaller harvest in the next few days, but I didn't get as many as I thought I would. The Straight 8 variety is especially stingy. 

I finished harvesting fava beans. There were only two plastic grocery sacks full of beans from nearly an entire row of plants. This is about the same yield as last year. I'm thinking of trying a different variety next year to see whether the crop yield will improve.

My bush beans are doing great. I grew a first-time variety this year called Black Valentine, an heirloom. They are moderately thin and long. They don't have the--not sure what other people call this--fuzzy skin on the outside of the pod, which seems prevalent on some varieties. The smoother skin seems to be make the fresh pod taste sweeter. I like munching on these while I gardening.

There is a bumper crop of winter squash this year. I have yet to take an inventory of what is on the vine, but I see additions every day. A few of the crossbred Delicata plants were slow to produce, but now are pumping it out. My Rouge Vif D' Etampes pumpkins have been good producers, too. This was another crossbred seeding, but unlike the Delicata offerings, there are no oddities so far.

Name that Fruit

I have written before about using seed from store-bought Delicata squash. The issue is that unless you grow homogeneous crops with hundreds of yards of separation between crops, you will get cross-pollination. That won't hurt the parent plant or its fruit, but the progeny of cross-pollinated fruit will be unpredictable. The old wives' tale is that the progeny fruit will be inferior to the parent fruit. I believe this is wrong. I used tainted Delicata seed last year and had success. It admittedly was unpredictable, as I got plants that produced dumpling squash or Delicata. But the flavor was undiminished in either variety.

I used the Delicata seed again this year and, so far, have impressive vegetative growth and a lot of fruit ripening on the vines of several plants. I again have Delicata and dumpling (which has some fruit as large as an acorn squash), but I also have one plant that is producing something quite odd. It looks like a watermelon, so it likely will get nicked. It will be interesting to see what the final result looks like and how it tastes.

What is it?

Dumpling squash.

Delicata squash.

Pickled

I am growing five varieties of cucumbers this year. Two in the food bank plots and three in my community garden plots. Then I mix and match. Boothby's Blonde are best eaten fresh. The skin is thin and they make a good snack while weeding, watering or harvesting. Lemon cucumbers, too. I seeded Boothby's and Lemon within a day or so of each other the first week of June. I already have harvested many Boothby's. I'm still waiting for a ripe Lemon.

I tried pickling cucumbers for the first time this year. In the past, I have pickled Boothby's and Carolina. Both have large seed cavities, which turns them to gel in a pickling jar. The pickling cucumbers I am growing this year are better, but several have grown too large, too quick, so they were food banked.

One quart of pickles and another one in the making.

I don't have a recipe for pickles, or anything else I preserve. The main thing is to use a lot less vinegar than what is suggested in most recipes. I dilute apple vinegar with 50 percent water. Add a little sea salt and onion powder, a couple of chopped garlic cloves and a teaspoon or so of dried dill. Okay, maybe that is a recipe, but I don't measure anything, so it turns out differently every time.

Sometimes I boil the water/vinegar before adding it to the cucumbers. It doesn't really matter because I store all of my preserves in the refrigerator. I reuse canning lids, so I can't trust dry storage for longevity. I just opened a jar of pickled peppers that has been in the refrigerator since September 2011. As of this writing, I have not suffered food poisoning. 

The pickled peppers are a variety called Garden Salsa, a long, thin, semi-hot pepper. I am not a fan of scorching-hot peppers, and this variety is just right on the Scoville scale for my taste. I would say it is close to jalapeno heat, but without the funky texture of thick-walled jalapenos. I have not been able to find Garden Salsa pepper seed via the Internet or other seed sources. I have purchased this variety as plant starts from the same roadside stand for the past three years. I have two Garden Salsa plants growing at the garden site that were planted July 18. I know that sounds late to be planting warm season crops. But peppers plants are just now starting to show some vigor.

It’s Been a While

The last few days broke the dreary spell of more than two weeks of overcast mornings and daytime temperatures below 80 F. Saturday, August 4, hit 100 F. The summer crops are soaking it in with a burst of productivity. In the old days, in California, 100 F was the average daily temperature for more than a month during summer. I sometimes fantasize about gardening in California. They start harvesting field-grown mixed melons in Southern California in May.

Pendulous yucca and ice plant, Lampranthus aurantiacus and
Yucca recurvifolia, growing in the California sun. The plants
were living in the Upper Sacramento River Valley as of June 2005.

Here in the gloomy Northwest, I began harvesting cucumbers from the food bank plots. The beets and peas are tapped.

Some Boothby's Blonde cucumbers harvested for the food bank.
They were direct seeded June 1 and harvested August 6.

Boothby's Blonde cucumber was the first vegetable I successfully grew from seed. It is an heirloom from Maine. I have grown it at the community garden site for three of the past four years and always get a large, early crop. I seeded some Straight 8 cucumbers the same day and in the same location as Boothby's Blonde. I have harvested one Straight 8 cucumber so far. That variety didn't germinate as well as Boothby's and its overall production will be less than half of its blond cousin.

A Howden pumpkin showing its first blush of orange. The good thing
about pumpkins ripening in August instead of October is they are
less likely to be stolen. Two were nicked last year.
This is the only fruit I got from a three-plant hill.

A Jarrahdale pumpkin on the vine. Named after the Western Australia
town, Jarrahdale pumpkins ripen to a grayish-blue.

A Prescott Fond Blanc melon about the size of a handball on August 4.
Four Prescott starts were transplanted to the garden site June 28.