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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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BIGGEST BEND HARVEST TO DATE!

Victor should probably get hold of himself right now, lest he laugh so hard he gets a HERNIA....but today was a banner day in the Bend edition of Earl Aagaard’s garden.

Once Sophia got to our house, and Gail headed out for her appointment, the girlie and I tripped off into the garden for a look around.

I had told her we were going to pick some things, and as soon as we approached the COLD FRAME, she spied the STRAWBERRY and squealed…..this is berry #2, remember, and picking it just thrilled her.

Then I pointed out the CUCUMBER, hanging high up on the tomato cage, and she reached up and picked it.

The ZUCCHINI was impossible to reach….in fact, I had to climb into the frame, and stretch down OVER the wire cage around the plant in order to get it, but that made THREE “CROPS” harvested in a single afternoon!

Sophia was enchanted….although not so distracted by the vegetables and fruit that she didn’t stop half-way back to the house to capture a CRANE FLY. Sadly, she was holding it by one leg, and just as I saw this, the fly snapped off the leg and was away…..ah well.

Then she posed with the day’s harvest
.

Sophia was dancing with impatience for Grandmama to get home and be “surprised” by the produce! We ate our lunch (me) and snack (Sophia), and about the time we finished, Gail arrived and played her part to perfection. Then the tasting began…...

The strawberry was rather small and seedy, but we dutifully cut it into four pieces and shared it out, one quarter to each of us - and it was DELICIOUS! The perfect strawberry - sweet, and also with intense flavor. If all my strawberries were like this one, I’d be a happy farmer! I lopped off that skinny end of the zucchini, and then cut a round and divided it in four - dipping each quarter in RANCH DRESSING before the tasting. It was good, although Sophia said that one bite was enough. It was a bit strong, honestly. Then I personally tasted a piece of the cucumber to be sure it wasn’t bitter from uneven watering, and it was delicious. Sophia tasted her little chip, whereupon she followed Grandmama’s lead, picked up the cuke, and simply gnawed hunks off the end. She really LIKES cucumbers.

All in all, a very satisfying afternoon…..although when I told Laura about it, she laughed and said she wondered how Sophia would react to what we used to harvest at the Homestead. A waste of time and energy to think about that—this is Bend….get used to it!

High temperatures will be in the high 60s and low 70s for the next 10 days, and the overnight lows will be high 30s and low 40s. I probably won’t have to pull my plastic over the garden, but I’ll certainly watch the updates from day to day so I don’t get frost-killed by a big surprise. And I’m still needing to cut the basil again.

(sigh)

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 09/07 at 10:35 PM

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