How do you open an acorn squash? Or a huge Cinderella pumpkin? I usually pull our big cleaver from the magnetic knife strip. I hold it with both hands and smack at the tough skin. The squash rolls and I try to right it. The cleaver gets stuck and I smash down further anyways. Alex sees me, fears for his beautiful countertops and my fingers, and takes over the job. Recently, my friend Susan let [...]

We visited the other garden last Tuesday.  Look what we found: Corn!! Corn that hides Lil the corn princess! Ears of corn with tassels! Corn with whispy leaves taller than me! Baby squash lacing through the corn and… …heart shaped sweet potato leaves winding their way through the squash! Our community garden plot is growing according to plan; mostly it takes care of itself.  Here’s hoping the rest of the summer proceeds with fairly normal [...]

Today we ate our last winter squash harvested over six months ago.  It was bitter and I’m sad about that. I wondered exactly what is left in our larder.  Here’s the count as of March 9, 2010: 8.5 quarts applesauce 10 half pints tomato paste 3 quarts tomato sauce 12 quarts whole tomatoes 2 half pints ketchup 3 quarts barbeque sauce 3 pints honey strawberry jam 1 pint peach jam 2 bags frozen blueberries (maybe [...]

One of the most satisfying plants to grow, in my opinion, is squash.  Zucchini, summer, acorn, butternut, pumpkin, and the like are all tremendously easy, delicious, and big. Sometimes size does matter. Squash seeds send out large leaves just a few days after direct seeding.  The leaves grow big and wide quickly.  Kids love squash plants because they literally grow overnight. Wide leaves shade out weeds and reduce the need for watering.  They also hide [...]

What’s growing?  Everything!  Well, almost everything. Peppers are starting to mature and we are eating them as we need.  If we keep them on the vine, they will ripen to red, which is fine by me. We have tons of green tomatos on the vine.  A very few have started blushing red.  One cherry tomato plant (a volunteer) has given us our first two ripe tomatos! Speaking of volunteers, the sunflowers are a delight!  I [...]