Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Cooler Nights and Crisper Days




In our gardening world . . .

Our heirloom tomato patch has proven to be a small success. This year, I included Mortgage Lifters, Yellow Brandywines and Cherokee Purples. (And those green tomatoes might be headed for a good frying.)

Our brand new fig tree gave us three figs last week - and it looks like a second crop sprouting is happening right now. Magic.

We inherited a much-desired worm factory! I have a lot to learn about food scrap ratios and feedings, but it will be great to compost different components of our house trash. What's more, Willa has taken a keen interest in it already. She loves crawling insects. I'm warming up to them. I'll really warm up to them when I can feed my plants with their castings and compost tea.

I am already thinking about fall plantings in the vegetable garden - greens, lettuces, peas, broccoli perhaps? And I just bought some winter rye for a cover crop. (More on that later.)

What else?

Bittman's Corn and White Bean Salad as well as peach and tomatillo salsa, slow-roasted tomatoes and bruschetta. (Seeing a trend?) Also, swiss chard enchiladas (with chard from our garden!).

A few weeks ago, I got to see Neko Case at a beautiful old theater here in Charlottesville. Her voice gave me goosebumps. After the show, I wanted more and have discovered her other project, The New Pornographers. Check out Electric Version.

Sunprints!

We booked our Finger Lakes lake-front cottage for a get away. I can't WAIT.

We have been receiving awesome treats from friends lately - including (very!) local honey, blackberry jam, pesto and these canned pears in some sort of sweet sauce that smells like Christmas spices.

Thrifting lately has unearthed some fantastic finds - including a full 1970s fondue set, a Prince Charles and Lady Diana royal wedding commemorative plate and a kitchen chair from the 1950s in chrome and red vinyl. I have also slowly been collecting slightly abused wooden frames and plan to refinish and gild them, eventually to hold artwork, old family photos and vintage maps. *And* I found a vintage luggage set for Willa that I am going to line with bright fabrics.

I've been reading TJ's Backyard a lot, lately. One of my favorite posts - "New UVA Provost Spends Afternoon Googling What A Provost Does."

3 comments:

Rohrerbot said...

Those figs look delicious!

Mama Marathon said...

Re: TJ's Backyard - I hope the Lunar dust storms go easy on your figs.

Becky said...

I just scored a sweet 70's fondue set too! Perhaps a fondue party is in order.