While I selfishly long for a bit of rain, the late summer season here on the Vineyard has produced some fabulous weather. Folks are really happy everywhere. The late season gardens are putting out their best show. Sedum is blooming and awash in the bees. That is, the ones that escaped deer damage.
While on the subject of deer, I’ve noticed some new targets for destruction that I used to assume were safe. For example, Rose of Sharon and astilbe are now denuded on a few properties. Even lilacs are no longer immune. Sigh!
Also, my vegetable garden has a very nice sturdy fence. Nonetheless some critters are doing significant damage. I’m picking barely ripened tomatoes as the ripe one always get damaged. Sometimes there is a triangular hole from a crow, some are dragged here and there by chipmunks, those on the ground are enjoyed by voles and — most annoying — a rat will climb right up into the plant for supper. I had a good laugh, recently, at Ghost Island Farm. A pumpkin was on the porch with several bite marks next to a plastic rat!
Back to the unripe tomatoes — the horizontal areas in the kitchen are covered with them. Daily, I pick out the ripe ones and toss them into the freezer. Hopefully, I’ll drag them out later to run through the Squeezo Strainer. A juice sans skin and seeds can then be popped into a canner. In the past I have pulled them from the freezer, dipped them for a nanosecond in hot water and removed the skins. A quick sauce can then be made. I find that the seeds as well as the skin tend to make the sauce a little acidic. Some folks use sugar or balsamic vinegar to correct the problem. I add boatloads of caramelized onion and carrots, then hit the whole situation with the hand-held blender (best kitchen tool ever).
In other vegetable garden news, buckwheat only takes three days to germinate and it blooms in less than a month. Therefore, you still have time to scatter some on beds that are now empty.
I digress. I meant to talk about the late season garden. Angelonia, nicotiana, cosmos and petunias are still holding their own for some much appreciated color. I picked my first watermelon of the year. It’s the Moon and Stars variety — a dark green with tiny yellow “stars” and a sliver of a “moon.” An heirloom type, it can get up to 40 pounds — as if — mine is at most 10 pounds, but really delicious. It has very large seeds, which I do not mind. It would be great to replant said seeds for a crop next year. Sadly, unless only that variety was grown — cross pollination can happen with other melons and squashes. The resulting fruit next year will not come back true to form. You have probably experienced this phenomenon in your compost. The fruit is pretty (maybe) but usually tasteless and weird.
Speaking of tasteless and weird, how about Trumps proposed ball room? I find it remarkable that he is permitted to build such a structure on the “People’s House.” This is in light of the economic disaster he has visited upon all of us common folk who will never be invited to party down in the aforementioned ballroom. Just when I thought paving over Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden was the worst.
I’m talking about all this because the rest of the week’s news was so horrible. Wonder if there is an end in sight?
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