Musable

Something that starts with an E.

Would you look at that.

My money would have been on the fattest one to start laying first, but Quiche beat her to it and gave us this perfect little egg this evening.

Because it was the first, of course we had to take a look at it.

Perfect yolk.

And thankfully, no aliens or other weirdness inside.

Unfortunately, the three of us here had all just finished eating a couple of bowls each of some hearty stew, and the thought of frying this up right now was a bit nauseating. We’re hoping to con….vince Aubrey to eat it when she gets here.

Nothing quite like it.

We like fresh flowers around here, and fortunately, those I planted out and about are in full bloom, along with everything else.

Timing, I like to say, is everything.

During my morning rounds, I’d mentioned to mom that I should put together some kind of bracing for the corn, to keep it upright as it started to bear. I’d not noticed any tiny ears forming as yet on that morning, but the time was approaching.

I put that task on my list, then headed off for the rest of my rounds and all the other assorted things that already populated that list.

I suppose I should have moved it up the list a little.

Yes, that is my lovely corn, blown down by a fairly severe storm that rolled through. I was of two minds about saving it: on one hand, we were about a month away from actual corn. On another - well, would it be too damaged to stand, or something that couldn’t be replanted, and how much of my time would it take to try to recover it instead of replanting it?

What fool tries to save blowdown corn? One who sees this when they’re looking over the damage.

Closer inspection done while I was crawling through the frames showed quite a number of tiny ears forming. The decision at that point became a simple one: figure out a way to save it, if at all possible.

Besides, there were others who needed their homes.

Chicken butt.

Our spring, such as it is, yields early and quickly to summer. We are already seeing summertime temperatures and weather - like the afternoon storms that blow through each day. I am still convinced that the ranch is in some kind of Bermuda triangle-like zone where most of the normal Florida type weather passes by. Two days ago, a large, severe storm hit the area. In town, very heavy rains and hail the size of golfballs came down. Here, we got some rain and a spattering of tiny hail that melted as soon as it hit the pavers. Not that I am unhappy about that, mind you: I’d prefer that all the plants not be destroyed in a hailstorm.

So far this season, we have picked about ten quarts of blackberries.

That, as they say, is a mere drop in the bucket given the sheer number of blackberry vines growing wild on the property. We’re going to try to gather as much as we possibly can, though, before the brief season ends. We gathered the above before this storm rolled through.

Finally, hints of orange-gold.

The first sungolds are coming in.

The squash and zucchini continue unabated.

Today, I pulled all the carrots that had been residing in front of the original batch of snow peas (the vines of which have since gone into the compost pile, spent). Two varieties: parisian market, and little finger.

I also decided the other day that it would be instructive to keep a tally of what we’re pulling, weight-wise from the frames that actually have things in them, even though we still got a late start this year on getting things in.

All of these tipped the scales at just over three and a half pounds.

They clean up well for presentation, too.

Three and a half pounds of carrots is a lot of carrots. Unfortunately, yours truly is unable to taste them. The others who serve as my loyal taste testers said they were sweet, and more “carroty” than store bought. Good thing, because I have a batch of sugar snax carrots started and another round of both parisian and little finger in a flat.

It seems that way, at times. The first round of snow peas wanted to climb right off the top of the five foot trellis we’d made for them.

The scarlet runner beans have done so, reaching up over the topmost brace, grasping for something that is not there. Yet. I haven’t decided whether to wind those tendrils back on to the existing trellis or come up with a super clever idea to allow them to climb even higher.

For the new round of snow peas, I did build an eight foot trellis, just in case. I still need to string it so they’ll have something to climb when the time comes, and that task should be interesting since I’ll need a ladder to reach the top brace.

All the Vermont cranberry beans germinated, along with most of the cowpeas (black eyed peas), the snap beans, and the shelling peas (Little Marvel). We’ll be up to our asses in beans and peas, probably all at the same time. Not a bad problem to have, really.

Why scream when it isn’t necessary?

Homemade ice cream sandwiches, from top to bottom: the perfect summer treat.

One day shy of three weeks ago.

And now.

Doesn’t this look like a peaceful scene? Somewhere you could walk out, take a deep breath, enjoy the promise of future tomatoes? All of these are sungolds, a mighty tasty cherry-type tomato.

But evil lurks within that peaceful scene. Can you see it? A closeup might help.

Those are hornworms. Left to their own devices, they can wipe out entire plants in no time.

We pulled about two dozen off the sungolds. I was getting a bit creeped out by squishing them, so we started dropping them into this flat instead.

I’m aware that critters need to eat. But these critters do not belong on these plants. No way.

Since we don’t use the commercial pesticides, and I wasn’t about to grind down on these things any further, there was only one thing to do.

In mythology, fire is often seen as a cleansing device. That’s how I viewed this.

Fortunately, although they did quite a bit of damage…

…the plants are mature and resilient.

We’re still waiting for the first ripe fruit. Patience. Patience.