Tender At Any Cost

Yes, I spotted this at a grocery store in Sturgeon Bay.

Tenderloin of watermelon.

Who knew?

$13 gets you the most expensive melon on the planet.....

The Garden Chronicles

The year started with plenty of precipitation and then a drought settled-over the land for more than a month.  What managed to germinate at the second and third sowing withered and died for lack of a drink.  Let's face it, well water from my aquifer is a poor substitute for the stuff God distributes from the sky.  Things were looking grim until regular rains returned by the end of July.  We're still behind in the the seasonal growing period with a net shortfall but we've harvested green beans, cukes, sweet peppers and plenty of basil for brick oven pizzas.

Just the other day there was this:  Real San Marzano tomatoes along with big beefy beefsteak fruit and sweet yellow cherry-size tomatoes for daily snacking.  I'll likely have sufficient tomatoes to can for both pizza sauce and juice.

And sweet Northstar peppers too.

Check out this melon

It's been a rough year; nevertheless, sometimes you can delightfully turn the corner.  There are Kakai seed pumpkins growing on the vine along with a couple of rows of yummy-looking leeks.  Cukes are still producing.

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

The Garden Chronicles

Yesterday I commenced to put the garden to bed for the winter.  After a frost struck a few days ago it was time.  I pulled almost everything out and chucked it in the compost piles.  All that remains are my Kakai seed pumpkins and the carrots.

Pumpkins 

Following a hiatus of about a decade I introduced cantaloupe to this year's line-up.  They happen to be a hybrid variety producing a smaller fruit that is juicy delicious.  Try it on vanilla ice cream for a real treat.

Sweet peppers have been awesome too.

Hopefully the soil will dry out sufficiently before freeze-up as I'd sure like to turn it over before the snow flies.  That would also afford me the opportunity to burn the remaining petrol in the rototiller.  We'll see.

It's been a very good gardening year.  I'm pleased with the results.

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

Fruit of the Vine

Things are winding-down for the garden. 

Fifteen Kakai pumpkins await the opportunity to offer-up their delicious, hull-less seeds.  Five melons and four acorn squash.

Not bad.