Well, it all paid off: we are the proud growers of an enormous "Cinderella" pumpkin!  And at least one good smaller one, and possibly two more if they ripen before we get a frost… 

That’s me trying to get back to the big pumpkin to cut it free – the garden, as you may recall, is incredibly overgrown.  The pumpkin vine basically took over everything, crawling up and over the tomatoes and out into the alley.  After the summer heat broke and we got some more rain, two new pumpkins started growing and they seem to be doing very well.  Just a race against time to get them ripened and picked.

Ta da!  Got the sucker picked and hauled out of there – amazingly, the pantyhose solution worked!  I had no idea how strong that stuff is, but it grew to over twice what I could stretch it by hand and still held the 45 pound pumpkin suspended.  That’s right, I said 45 pounds!!  No state fair winner, but damn big for our little garden…

The little guy is only 15 pounds.  It seems big until you see them together.  Now what are we going to do with them??  Probably cut and peel them and freeze them, either before or after boiling and mashing – I’ll read up and see.  They should keep for a while, it would be great to have home-grown pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and even Christmas.  Yum…

So… We planted cucumbers way back when, and sure enough they grew and we got lots of cukes. Then our CSA veggie share started sending cukes our way. With Karen out of town and a million pounds of other veggies to get through, what’s a guy to do? Make pickles!

Once again, the internets saved the day. I had a vague idea of how this might work – is it just cucumbers and vinegar? – but no real definite plan. The first thing I found out was how to tell if your cucumbers are good for pickling or if they’re too ripe, and unfortunately most of ours were well over-ripe. Also probably not the best variety for pickling. But there were still plenty of cukes in good shape, including the CSA ones, so I got to cutting and soaking the slices in a salt water brine for most of the day.

Then this evening I cut up 2 onions and peeled a million cloves of garlic. Using my homebrewing know-how I skipped the pre-boiling of the jars and lids, and after a thorough cleaning just threw them into a sanitizing solution for a bit. Put the garlic and onions on the bottom along with rounded tablespoon of the "pickling spices" from our local co-op, and started shoving cucumber slices in the jars! I had read that for a crisper pickle you can heat to 180 and hold it for longer rather than boiling, so that’s what’s happening as I type.

As soon as I started hearing pings and creaks from the jars, I knew I had trouble on my hands – all the directions mention some magical device for removing the piping-hot jars from the water, and I of course had procured no such device. Hmm. But hey! I deal with piping-hot liquids all the time in the form of unfermented beer! I have heat-safe tubing! I’ll just siphon off the water from the pot and carry the whole thing downstairs gently to cool. Awesome.

So, a big adventure. I know how Karen loves her pickles, with any luck these won’t be terrible – I may crack a jar in a week to see how they’re doing, but everything I read said they’ll be much better in a few weeks to months. Maybe a little pickle party on the North Shore in a few weeks! (if she makes it… fingers crossed.)

Also a few projects in the "development" stage for the house – mostly lighting, and mostly around the basement. I’ll post more once there’s more to post!

PS – Bruno misses you, Karen.

The rain garden has more blooms! This awesome red "something" flower (Karen knows the name) has been rocking out for a few days, and yesterday I snapped a few pictures. We’re pleasantly surprised to see so much growth and blooming out of these brand new plants, hopefully that means they’re established and healthy for years to come…

Brown Dog found a big stick on his walk yesterday and has been enjoying some quality time with it.

The garden continues its rampage. (compare to this) I took that picture this morning, and unfortunately by this afternoon the combined heat and lack of water (I was trying to hold out for the forecasted rain) wreaked a bit of havoc on the tomatoes – now that their fruit is so big it’s getting really heavy and a few of the taller stems collapsed. I noticed it sagging as soon as I got home and gave it some veggie first aid, I’m confident most of them will pull through.

Sick and tired of the cluttered destructo-zone in our kitchen closet, I rigged up a tiered bag holder for our recycling. It looks super ghetto but I justify it by looking at you, sneering, and saying "It’s for recycling. It’s made out of things I had lying around — and cardboard. Get it??" Then you feel embarrassed for pointing it out and I go get a drink from the kegerator. Best of all, the vacuum fits under the rack, much nicer than hanging out in the office.

I helped nature do its dirty work on this female blossom this morning. I don’t care what you say, we’re getting a pumpkin out of this mess.

Finally, today was the last day on the job for my super awesome co-worker, Eric, who’s off to bigger and better things in NY, NY. Wah. The Walker won’t be the same without him.

Oh! Drama! Last night I noticed that the topmost female pre-blossom was nearly ready to bloom, and this morning it opened spectacularly. I hunted around for a matching male flower, but unfortunately all but one were old and wilting. I think the plant is just getting in the swing of things and will sync up better later in the season – but who has time to wait?? I was all set to go grab a q-tip or paintbrush and do nature’s dirty work by hand, but as I tried to peek closer to see the stigma I noticed several small beetles milling around! No bees, but these little guys could do the job…

So I opted to let this first one go on its own – if it doesn’t pollinate, I’ll step in for the next few and see if I can help out. My biggest worry is that the male flowers are so low on the plant, and partially hidden by the leaves – will the beetles find them? And will they find them first, before they fly up to check out the female flower? I suspect I’m overthinking this, but on the other hand I really want some pumpkins!

[Dear readers: remember when Karen used to post? I do. Those were good days, all right. Good days.]

Our garden is blowing up. Almost overnight our tomatoes have gone from unassuming seedlings to gigantor Audrey II-like monsters. I’m scared to go back there. But they really need some pruning, so if you don’t hear from me for a while…

At left is our amazing pumpkin. It’s weird, I know I grew up around all these veggies, but I obviously didn’t pay attention to how they grew – or how big. I’ve already extended the trellis, about doubling the height, and since that picture was taken I tied up that vine at left so it’s read to start attacking the next level.

And that’s just the main vine, there are several secondary ones lower down. (should I prune those??) On the right is our rhubarb and raspberries, both making huge progress. I just read that we shouldn’t harvest any of the rhubarb this year (its first) since it needs all those huge leaves to make energy for building a strong root system. Then next year we can harvest "some", and finally go crazy in the third year. Whoa. Some good raspberries starting too, looks like we’ll get some fruit from them.

Next is the dill and cilantro, also doing well. The dill is almost weed-like in its propensity to spread, and the cilantro has recovered from a shaky start where it all got knocked down and bent. Looking forward to chilled carrot dill soup…

I grew so much cilantro hoping to use the coriander seeds to make ultra-fresh Witbier, but now I’m reading that Indian coriander has a nicer flavor and aroma. This one may be a touch "vegetal" or celery-like. Ah well, if I get any coriander it’s going in the beer! Finally the cukes (at right) – just today I found the first flower! I didn’t check if it was a male or female blossom, but since they’re not self-pollinating like our tomatoes I’m thinking we maybe should do it by hand? (I know, dirty…)

To finish the photo spread, a few fun shots of the tomatoes-in-progress. Cool!

Ok, so after Karen’s enthusiastic but detail-free post, I’ve been tasked with posting a few more pictures and notes. Here goes: First, some "before" pictures: on the left, the buried path, and on the right the garden as it existed a week ago.

First thing we did was dig out a new section of garden for raspberries and rhubarb. I’m putting in some edging left, and then tilling the surface – mixing compost and some new dirt.

Helpy doing his thing with the tomato bed frame, and me putting in the stakes for the pumpkin and cucumber trellis.

Karen making out with one of the cool little sun faces guarding the garden, and the tomatoes in the dirt with their stakes.

The trellis at left, we’re hoping it will support the cucumbers and pumpkins. Supposedly if we put the pumpkins in pantyhose legs and tie them to the trellis they’ll stay up and grow big without taking too much room in the garden. Finally, the path. While this is totally a temporary measure – we’re going to replace the whole thing with a sweet stone path done properly – it’s one thousand times better than the overgrown mess it was a week ago.

Ta da! A big long workday for both of us, but it was wonderful – working outside in the sun in our yard with our dog… (and beer on tap in the basement.) Ahhhh…

(oh yeah, we planted: raspberries, rhubarb, a hot chili pepper, basil, dill, cilantro, mint, rosemary, 4 kinds of tomatoes, a cinderella pumpkin, and some cucumbers. Whoa.)