Summertime Blues

The blueberry bushes are still yielding quite a bit of fruit ... as much as we care to pick!

I made another blueberry pound cake yesterday ... the third one this season. This one was made in honor of a couple of special July birthdays. My mother-in-law celebrated her 89th birthday last week, and Rouse the Spouse will be 66 tomorrow.

I don't think I've shared this recipe before. Definitely a "do-again-er"! I've been making this cake during blueberry season for years. The recipe comes from a Southern Living publication called The Southern Heritage Cakes Cookbook, copyright 1983. The book is definitely dated, but full of wonderful recipes. Here's an interesting review of the book, from Short Street Cakes in Asheville (post dated 2010) .... featured cookbook review

Blueberry Pound Cake

1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
2-1/4 cups sugar, divided
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries

Grease 10" tube pan (or bundt pan) with 2 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle pan with 1/4 cup sugar; set aside. Cream remaining 1 cup butter. Gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla; mix well.

Combine 2-3/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture, beating until well blended. Dredge blueberries with remaining 1/4 cup flour. Fold blueberries into batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool in  pan 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan, and let it cool completely before slicing.

For real decadence: Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

What happened to my tomato plant??

When the top of your tomato plant looks like this:

It's time to start looking for THIS:

Tomato Hornworm
A very large caterpillar with a horn on its tail

Here's another photo to give a size reference:

A hornworm's favorite thing to eat is tomato plant, although they will eat potato, eggplant, pepper ... any member of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family.

Hornworms chew leaves and can quickly and efficiently defoliate a plant. Typically, the feast begins with the leaves at the top. As the very hungry caterpillar matures, it may also chew holes in the fruit.

Physical removal is usually the only necessary management, but first you've got to find the beast. It's not as easy as you might think. These creatures are masters of camouflage. Blending in with the leaves and stems, they often go unnoticed until the damage is done. As you search, you may come across another sign of hornworm presence... relatively large, dark green droppings that have accumulated on leaves.

Now ... if you find a hornworm that looks like this:
Good news! Leave it! Parasitic wasps have laid eggs on it, effectively taking over its body. The wasps are "good guys" in the garden. For more about THAT, check out my post from June 2019:
https://sueisinthegarden.blogspot.com/2019/06/tomato-hornworms-and-little-help-from.html

Another 1" of rain overnight!

Just another day in the garden

Friday evening we woke in the middle of the night to the sound of thunder (close!) and rain on the roof.  In the light of day, the rain gauge revealed that a much needed inch of rain had fallen. No matter how hard we try, our watering efforts are never as effective as a good soak from Mother Nature. The plants have perked up. The veggies are growing like mad.

Yesterday I was mostly focused on getting green beans and beets processed and ready to eat, then putting up another batch of berry jam. Today, I took a closer look at the rest of the garden. Oh, my! The cherry tomatoes needed tying up. Two of my roselle plants had fallen over. The shishito peppers are ready to harvest, with one plant so overloaded with fruit it had fallen over on its side!

I got busy and picked the peppers. This is my first year growing shishito peppers. Last summer, they were all the rage, and for good reason. Oh my gosh, they are tasty! Officially classified as hot peppers, they are actually not hot at all ... except when they are! One out of every ten or twenty will be a bit spicy ... just enough to get your attention. Anyone for a little "Russian roulette" at the pepper platter?

No need to remove the seeds from these peppers. Just throw them, whole, onto the grill or into the skillet. Char-grilled or blistered with a little olive oil and sea salt, they make an awesome appetizer or unusual side dish. Can't wait to dig into our first batch!

Next task ... shore up the roselle. I carefully placed large tomato cages around the plants, taking care not to break any branches. I hope that will provide strong enough support in the long run.

Then, my espaliered cherry tomato plants needed some attention. What a mess! Fortunately, I was able to get them under control. I trained them up and across the plastic fencing, tying as needed. We've been enjoying the black cherry tomatoes, with plenty more to come. And finally, some little green tomatoes on the sun golds.

Once the urgent tasks were complete, I accomplished the daily picking of beans and cucumbers. I finished as the first hot rays of sun came over the tree tops and into the garden. Perfect timing!

Coffee First ... then the Garden

It's July, and it's hot and humid. When it comes to garden chores, the best plan is an early morning plan. As soon as I get up, I pour myself a big steaming cup of coffee. That's right ... it's already brewed and waiting. Rouse the Spouse spoils me that way :-)

Properly fortified, I head to the garden. The blueberries are coming on strong. The prolific green beans (rattlesnake pole beans and jade bush beans) were picked yesterday, but the beets need to be harvested today. A few cucumbers hide under their vines but cannot escape my eagle eye. It's a race with the sun. As soon as it peeks over the trees, it's quittin' time!

This morning, Rouse the Spouse did the blueberry picking. I pulled the beets and did the initial clean and sort of the roots and greens.

Then, into the kitchen to prep and cook (under pressure) the beets and yesterday's green beans. Then, prepare a batch of blueberry jam. Ooooh! The larder is looking better every day!

Mother Nature will take care of it... right?

Rouse the Spouse generously informed me that I would be in charge of removing the stinky, dead snake from the bird netting. Oh, no. Is he kidding?! I saw a vulture checking it out today. Maybe he will take care of it? But, no ... the place is too sketchy for a vulture. No way to relax and enjoy a good meal. No easy escape. The vulture passed us by.

So I went out to look at the poor snake, impossibly tangled in bird netting. But, wait! Even without the help of Brother Vulture, Mother Nature was taking care of business. The Blow Flies had already congregated, intent on laying their eggs (aka maggots) which would eventually hatch into very hungry larvae that consume decaying flesh. Beside them, a mass of dramatically colored yellow and black American Carrion Beetles were getting on with the business of laying THEIR eggs. Interesting factoid: In addition to eating the decaying flesh, carrion beetle adults and larvae eat maggots and other insect larvae that are competing for the same fleshy food sources. Look out flies!

I'm ok with this. I may have to put up with a little smelliness for a few days, but I'm grateful for the natural ways in which our earth very efficiently takes care of the unpleasantries of life.

The Daily Picking

I picked the garden this morning until the sweat dripped off my nose. I took that as a sign ... finished!

It was 11:00am. The sun should've stopped me at 10:30, but so many blueberries! And two beds of green beans that had to be picked. Plus, I just KNEW there was a cucumber or two under that heavy vine cover. Now for a tall glass of water and recovery in the blessed air conditioned house.

bountiful counter-full

Human Error Strikes Again

We lost Zebra, the presumptive rooster, last night. Got distracted at the wrong time and failed to close the green zone off from the larger chicken yard. Dammit! Assumed raccoon attack. Nothing left but the feathers.

Do not look if squeamish or tender hearted!

Bird netting saves the blueberries for human consumption, but not without a cost. Things can ... and DO ... get caught up in it. We were sad to find this black snake fatally ensnared. Sorry for the loss of this magnificent creature.

First Black Cherry Tomatoes

Almost waited too long to get this first bunch ... a couple have already split!