Moonflower

This old-fashioned flower blooms in the evening and glows all night in the moonlight. As night falls, the flowers unfold very quickly. So quickly, in fact, you can actually watch them open up!

Measuring 6" across, the huge white flowers are related to morning glories. Unlike their day-blooming cousins, though, which are pollinated by bees, the moonflower is pollinated by night-flying moths.

Highly fragrant, these flowers grow on 10' - 20' vines, requiring a trellis or pole on which to climb.

This vine and its flowers grace my garden space.

First Melon

Smelled good. Looked good. A little pale in taste ... diluted by excessive rainfall? Still, it made a good breakfast. These pictures tell the story ...

I removed a BIG black rat snake from the hen house

He didn't want to go! I had to wrestle him out of the rafters.

My sister, Janet, spotted him when she went into the chicken coop to gather the eggs. I told her to watch where he went while I ran to the house to get my snake grabber. She wasn't all that comfortable watching the snake  :-)

He retreated to an upper corner of the coop. I really did have to wrestle him down. We stuffed him into a brown paper grocery bag and removed him from our property to a nice patch of unpopulated woods. He was big and healthy ... obviously well fed. That explains the recent drop in the egg count.

Figs

The rains have been good to the figs. They are big and plump and plentiful! Unfortunately, with vacation and all kinds of other activities, I haven't had much time to deal with figs. I've given most of them away. I did manage to fill up my dehydrator in order to save a few for another day. The good news ... I'll get a second chance. This is the summer's first crop. There are many little green figs remaining on the tree. We can expect an encore crop in September.

Happy Birthday, Rouse!

The blueberries are ripe and plump. Today is Rouse's birthday. Time for a blueberry pound cake. Keeping in mind it's only the two of us here at the house I made a half-recipe, baking it in a loaf pan instead of a tube pan. Our usual method of eating this cake is topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but tonight we ate it hot out of the oven with no embellishment. It was almost too hot to cut, but, oh, so buttery and delicious!

Monsters Take Over in My Absence

That's a little melodramatic, but the garden did look very different when we returned from our family reunion vacation.

The squash plants are dead. I removed what was left of them, along with the resident squash bugs which caused their demise. Dad gum squash bugs!

The beautiful melon plants are yellow and dry. The melons are still looking good. Maybe they'll continue to ripen in a delicious way? I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Rouse the Spouse found a tobacco horn worm. I dropped it into the chicken yard. One of the Dominique hens snatched it up and ran around the chicken yard with her sisters in hot pursuit before managing to gobble up her prize.

Cucumber Mosaic Virus has settled into the cucumbers. It's easy to see where the name for this virus came from. Look closely ... it really does look like a tile mosaic! I'm going to have to get rid of these plants. This virus could be what has zapped the melons ... or not. Could be the recent dry weather.

The cucumbers themselves are huge! Are they edible? Too seedy? Too bitter? Hmmm ... I intend to find out tomorrow. Maybe some cucumber soup is in my future!

The good news? We have okra!!

Sue has NOT been in the garden since July 14

Sue has been in the mountains of western North Carolina ... hanging out with extended family, paddling rivers, hiking to the tops of mountains, listening to live music, swimming in cold water ... and basically, enjoying the view!

Rouse the Spouse and me on top of Mt. Mitchell, highest peak east of the Mississippi!

Bumper Crop of Blueberries

Edamame Ready to Harvest

Despite wet conditions early on and kudzu bug damage later the edamame has grown and produced beans. Edamame is a photo-period sensitive plant, affected by the relative length of days and nights. The plants flower only when the length of day is just right. When it's time to harvest, all the pods of a plant are ready to pick at once. Today was the day!

Edamame means "beans on branches". The beans grow in clusters on bushy branches.

I pull the plants from the garden, pile them into a big bucket, then settle into a comfortable (i.e. cool) spot to cut the pods from the branches. Next step, the pods are tossed into a pot of salted, boiling water for immediate consumption or blanched, packaged, and frozen for later use.

Read more about edamame:

National Soybean Research Lab

National Garden Bureau

Pacific Northwest Extension Publication

Cucumber Soup

Charentais Melons - How to know they're ripe?

Charentais Melons, a.k.a. French Breakfast Melons are considered by many to be the sweetest, most flavorful melons in the world. And I have some growing in my garden!

I've been wondering how to know when they're ripe and ready to pick. These melons have a grayish yellow-green skin, typically the size of large grapefruits (~ 2 pounds). From what I've found on the internet, you must use your senses:

1. Look - The skin will trade its gray-green color for a warmer yellow tone. 
2. Smell - The nose knows! Charentais have a complex, full-bodied aroma with flower overtones.
3. Taste - Eat them up quick, because these melons don't store well and do bruise easily.

Here's a good guide to harvesting all kinds of melons:
GardenWeb

Here's a nice video:
Harvesting a Charentais Melon

A Sink Full of Green Beans to Eat or Freeze

Peppers

  

I guess I better get ready to pick a peck of peppers. Maybe I'll pickle some of them. I know I'll be stuffing a lot of them with a variety of delicious fillings!

Sweet Pickles

It is so nice to be picking too many cucumbers! Last year, the cucumber crop was a bust, and not just in MY garden. All my gardening friends had puny cucumber yields in 2012. Disease set in early. Not so this year!

Today's garden chore: Save some of these cucumbers for future use.

First, I made a double batch of refrigerator pickles. These no-cook pickles are so easy to prepare, and make a perfect accompaniment to all your favorite summer meals. Here's the recipe:

Refrigerator Pickles
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 small onion, sliced
1 small green pepper, sliced
Cucumbers, unpeeled, sliced 1/4" thick

Mix together vinegar, sugar, and spices. Pack veggies into a glass jar that has a tight fitting lid. Pour vinegar solution over all, be sure all vegetables are covered. Store in refrigerator. Keeps "forever"!

Then, I set about making sweet pickle relish. I haven't purchased store-bought relish since 2010 when I started producing my own. I have to say, I don't miss the corn syrup version at all! My favorite recipe is the one found in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving:

Sweet Pickle Relish
1 quart chopped cucumbers
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped sweet green pepper
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1/4 cup salt
3-1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed
2 cups apple cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, and peppers in a large bowl; sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine sugar, spices, and vinegar in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil; add drained vegetables; simmer 10 minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about 8 half-pints

Start with beautiful produce and a few other ingredients.

Chop, chop, chop. It requires a LOT of chopping. Then, soak veggies in salt water.

Cook it all up, pack into jars, and process in the hot water bath.

Gorgeous jars ready for the pantry! A double batch made 8 pints.

Rain, Rain, and more Rain!

We are wet in central NC. It's been raining every day for a long time.

This is an unusual situation as we enter July. The extreme moisture has caused problems for farmers, as well as home gardeners, who report poor pollination, poor yields, fruit rotting on the vine ... IF they've been able to get into the garden at all. Soggy soil and flooded fields have resulted in fewer vegetables for grocery stores and farmers markets, and the price of fresh produce is skyrocketing. A problem for the farmers becomes a problem for all of us.

Our raised beds help a bit in our little patch of land, as they drain faster than the red clay that naturally occurs around here. But we're still susceptible to mold and mildew type problems.

The silver lining to this cloud? Our pond is full! The water lilies and lotus blossoms are lovely.

And the blackberries are fat. I felt as if I were in a paddy field while picking the plump wild blackberries growing in a thicket near the pond. I've never had to wade in the water to pick berries before!

Melons

I'm looking forward to some fresh melon! We planted a hybrid specialty melon, Savor (F1), chosen for its smaller size and its reputation for deliciousness. Check out this description from Johnny's seed catalog: "The sweetest French melon. Unsurpassed eating quality. The small, 2 pound melons are of the classic Charentais type: faintly ribbed, with a smooth gray-green rind and dark green sutures. Sweet and aromatic, deep orange flesh."

The plants have taken over the upper corner of the garden. They're loaded with blossoms and the pollinators are busy doing their job. A few fruits are beginning to form.

I can't wait to cut into one of these beauties! My mouth is watering already!!

First Handful of Blueberries

... and a few wineberries, too!