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By feral, on October 23rd, 2011%
On Friday we were due for our bi-weekly garden visitation. However, James had to travel to California; so, I drove upstate by myself. With several How Stuff Works podcasts entertaining my curious mind and with the Taconic wowing my weary eyes with foliage landscapes at every turn, it turned out to be a lovely drive.
With green rapidly fading from the scene, the garden still had a couple of green surprises for me: the last batch of green tomatoes, string beans, the relentless shishito peppers, 2 radishes and even 3 cucumbers! (Which brings the total number of cucumbers I harvested this year to 5. Ok, maybe to 10…)
 I spent some time on Friday afternoon cleaning up in the garden. It gets dark around 6 now, so I didn’t have that much time. The dusk’s sudden advance interrupted my activities; I raised my eyes from wilted tomato plants I was pulling out of the ground and suddenly saw a gleaming beam of red light shooting out from the woods. It looked almost like the tail of a meteor — but, in fact, it was the tail of a rainbow. . . . CONTINUE READING → Out with the green!
By feral, on September 10th, 2011%
Oh hello.
Sorry to keep everyone in the dark about the results of the last photo quiz. It was a tough one — and radically different on the scale of scientific magnitude as well as photographic magnification.
 Congratulations to Anna who figured out the mystery! The image in question is a tomato seed under the microscope. The photo comes from The International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge 2010 via my biologist friend Kapa (who originally came up with this quiz). The outer, translucent, sphere of the seed is filled with a special gel that contains a substance which, according to Kapa, “we will all probably be consuming in large amounts 20 years from now.”
Discovered by British scientists and patented as Fruitflow, this substance “can help maintain a healthy blood circulation by preventing blood from clotting, according to clinical trials.” (Source: Tomato seeds are the healthy alternative to aspirin)
So, I’ve always thought that the seedy slimy core of a tomato is its most delicious part and, therefore, have always been skeptical of any recipes instructing you to discard the seeds (I have no objections . . . CONTINUE READING → A tomato seed a day…
By feral, on August 25th, 2011%
I was away from the garden for long three weeks. Finally, we escaped the city, shaken up by yesterday’s seismic tremors, and safely arrived in Canaan late last night. (Although the earthquake was most noticeable in the neighborhoods of Twitter and Facebook, I did feel it in Soho and James, who was at home, says that 5.8 magnitude translates into quite an unnerving sensation on the 37th floor…) And if Manhattan, fortunately, did not sustain any damages, in the garden this morning I witnessed scenes of devastation.
The tallest sunflowers collapsed.
Tomato plants fell to they ground, many with their support structures.
 None of these catastrophic damages, however, were due to tectonic shifts. The sunflowers grew too tall for their own good and tomatoes too heavy, although I do take partial responsibility for a somewhat faulty deficient job staking the latter. In any case, it won’t hurt to get more earthquake-resistant varieties next year.
But it only looked dramatic. The was almost no real damage. Quite the opposite, actually — I spent the rest of the day . . . CONTINUE READING → Back in the garden – harvest time!
By feral, on August 9th, 2011%
I’m happy to announce that Tomato Race 2011 has a winner! Two Black Plum tomatoes ripened and were picked on Sunday, August 7, thus officially opening the feral tomato season.
The first and the second runners-up are Black Krim (below, on the right) and Cuore di Bue (“ox heart” in Italian). They were picked white (tomatoes generally turn a lighter shade of green before they become red), and are now slowly but surely catching up on our kitchen counter.
 The Fest of the First Ripe Tomato is probably the most anticipated event of the entire garden season. Last year the joyous day arrived at least two weeks earlier. And so, when Mark Bittman said a few days ago that “tomato season isn’t even halfway over,” I felt a bit embarrassed, as well as hopeful and desperate at the same time… Hopeful, because we still have quite a few days of summer ahead of us, and desperate because I won’t be in the garden for the next several weeks: we’re . . . CONTINUE READING → Tomatoes!
By feral, on May 22nd, 2011%
 And it’s time to push out some content after an extended blogger’s block!
Last couple of weeks all of my energy was consumed by the grading marathon and other end-of-semester matters but now I’m officially ready for the summer. Whenever it decides to arrive.
While we’re waiting, let’s reflect on what I’ve done so far. This list has no particular order.
Peas — I planted most of them around St. Patrick’s Day. Thought I’d never see them again but they surprised me several weeks ago with some confident and strong shoots. I had to quickly improvise some trellises. To protect the young shoots from my resident rodents, I placed some plastic bottles, cut off on both ends, around them. Onions — planted in April and already sporting some nice green shoots. James’ rhubarb is already pretty enormous. Last weekend we had to remove its giant flower stalks to ensure it doesn’t throw all of its energy into seeds. When spring is as cold as this year, rhubarb tends to bolt (go to flower -> seeds) early, which stops the growth of its edible (stalks) and poisonous (leaves) parts. . . . CONTINUE READING → grades are in, peas are up!
By feral, on February 12th, 2011%
Finally saw The Kids Are All Right last night. Undoubtedly, the centerpiece of the movie is the following quote by Nic, Annette Bening’s character (which I’m stealing, along with the image below, from this post by The Film Doctor):
 “Just fucking kill me, okay? I’m sorry guys, but I just can’t with fucking hemp milk and the organic farming and if I hear one more person say they love heirloom tomatoes, I’m going to fucking kill myself, okay? And did you know that we’re composting now? Oh yeah. Oh no, don’t throw that in the trash. You have to put it in the composting bin where all of the beautiful worms will turn it into this organic mulch and then we’ll all feel good about ourselves. I can’t do it, okay? I can’t fucking do it.”
Now James believes that this is the greatest movie ever because the above quote supposedly conveys our very . . . CONTINUE READING → And did you know that we’re composting now?
By feral, on August 15th, 2010%
 I think I ate at lest 8 tomatoes today. And this is what’s left in the basket. I am one happy gardener.
white pattypan (scallop) squash
In other news: an alien flotilla landed on the squash patch.
I used 2 of these flying saucers in a squash casserole for dinner (with onions, peppers, tomatoes, parsley, basil and garlic). I’ve never cooked with pattypan squash before (I have, however, used it for venturing out into the outer space), and was a little nervous. But it turned out lovely, with a sweet buttery taste and a wonderful texture. Except that the skin on some of the chunks remained a little tough (that’s right, I didn’t bother peeling it) – so, I figure I could have cooked it a little longer.
I was very relieved when James pulled out Chez Panisse Vegetables book tonight. I was beating myself up for forgetting to bring it upstate but, luckily, I’m not the only one concerned . . . CONTINUE READING → tonight’s basket report
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