Autumn??

Pfew!!! After 5 days of posts about dirt, I think it's time to get back to the progress of the kitchen garden! Mother nature has been teasing us for about the past week. On Monday the 16th, the fam and I left for a short vacation but were quite surprised at how cool the weather had gotten. Going from the mid 90's just a few days before to the mid 70's is quite a jump. Just when I thought that the fall season might be here, though, the temps jumped back up into the 90's! I checked the weekly forcast this morning - it looks as though Wendesday is supposed to be back down in the 70's but in the days to follow, the temps are projected to head back up. AHHHHH!!! I can't take all of this change!!

Anyway, the cool tems made me think about harvesting and I though that I'd pull these purple carrots that I planted for my brother-in-law:



The only thing that I have to say about growing these is that they are fickle!! Despite the 90 day projection, they are slow to grow and extremely sensitive to mother nature. Once they are done, though, they are kind of neat.

I was alos looking at what first the heat and then the cool had done to my zucchinni. A plant like this...















...is, to me, on its last legs. The yellow, and in some places dead, leaves tell me that the plant is just tired. I've been letting this one hold on for about two weeks, but now I just felt bad for it.

You might remember, though, that I mentioned that zucchinni are sneaky. Just as I was about to send the plant to the big compost bin in the sky, I thought that I should have one last look...

The darn thing is not only still producing but has actually rejuvenated in two spots. This one had a pretty good sized zucchinni on it already (which I picked). The other was actually growing three more (which will need about another week)! As tough as it can be to keep up with the constant flow of veggies, it is kind of nice to see the plant still producing because it's always a little sad when a plant dies.

Look for more tomorrow on how I kept with the tomatoes. As for most of the veggies, I actually owe the 'keeping up' to my wonderful wife. Although I might occasionally post that I think that something that I harvest will taste good, she is the true skill behind our wonderful meals. Let's face it - I can burn water. She, on the other hand, can blend all of the crazy combinations of things that I bring in from the garden into wonderful medleys of flavor (like roasted vegetable lasagna...who thinks of that??). So...thanks babe!!