I have a long history with Columbian ground squirrels, which some call ‘ground hogs’, others call ‘pocket gophers’ or ‘pocket squirrels’. I call them ‘∆#¶king nuisances’. I used to trap and relocate; one year, in excess of 129 of them using 4 traps in one short summer. A ‘stunk’ found its way into one of the borrowed (from W&P), larger traps one day. We both survived that, and I consider myself an expert on freeing a stunk from a ‘have-a-heart’ type trap. Not much luck this year trapping the rodents. I need a dog or an interested, hunter type cat.
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First “Scotch Bonnet Jean” of the season.
I hope it tastes and smells right . Sure doesn’t look like it’s cousin.
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Lettuce grown in a container on the deck, away from the nibbly mammals. Not my fave variety (which is red sails) but it will do.
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Yet more tomatoes.
There are no flowers and it’s heating up again, so I expect we are heading for a hiatus.
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Brava!
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End of cherry season in our neck of the woods. Here is about 3 1/2 quarts of sweet Lapins cherries - our second year with a harvest from this tree. These hold up well in the fridge, and we’ll eat them all before they go bad.
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Grapes! Small but mighty. Pearlettes I think. There is a single bunch on the other vine, which I think is Thompson.
And this guy!
More about un-girdled grapes.
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I planted some celery for the first time this year and … let’s just say I’m about to have a lot of celery.
On the lookout for a cream of celery soup recipe I might like, as well as some stir-fries featuring celery. Stir-frying is a surprisingly (to me) good technique for it.
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how did he taste?
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You should ask him how I taste!
JK. We both kept very still.
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That’s a very fat Fence Lizard! I suspect it’s a “she” and gravid. You may get some eggs laid there in moist soil, like they do here. If it has a blue throat, then it’s a male and has been eating very well.
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I had some celery in a mixed stir fry last night, flavored with homemade Black Bean (fermented) Chili oil. A quick stir fry keeps its crunch.
From Huang Su-Huei’s Chinese Cuisine:
2/3 lb. celery hearts
1.1 TBS dry mustard
3/4 TBS warm water
2.3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup stock or water (I use chicken bouillon.)
1/2 TBS corn starch
Mix ingredients in “1” in a bowl. Let stand 10 minutes, the mustard sauce.
Place “2” in a pot and bring to a boil, add the mustard sauce, sir, set aside.
Cut the celery into 2-inch pieces. Blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove & drain.
Combine everything.
I made this and liked it, using Coleman’s Mustard. If you use Chinese Hot mustard, it might need a little longer to cook off some of the intense spiciness.
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I haven’t got much to share—my tomatoes are still hard and green. However, I did pick a few golden cayennes and what was labelled as jalapeño. Looks like I’ll only get one fig this year. I put the plant in a terra cotta pot to keep it from blowing over, but it got dried out and they all fell off but one. My curry leaf plant is healthy and has these berries that I don’t remember ever seeing before. Flowers, yes, but not these. Can I harvest and plant them?
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Cool! I don’t know anything about curry leaf plants, but I think there was a question before.
May have been in 2022. Maybe this one.
Here’s another
@bogman might know.
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Thank you! I think most of the questions were mine! Bogman was super helpful.
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This post looks promising!
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I’m going to try that! The nursery I bought my plant from no longer sells them, so having a few would make me less panicky when they are struggling through winter indoor here. Thanks again.
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First green bell pepper harvested.
My Cherokee Purple always puts cat faced monsters out as it’s first offerings, and this year is no different. Some much-needed but ill-timed rain has meant the threat of splitting has me taking tomatoes off the vine a a bit earlier than I usually do. They do ripen on the counter as long as they’ve broken color.
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Wow! Did you weigh it?
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