Green For Fall

you know...usually, August comes and the grass on the side of the road turns brown..the trees are turning from green to brown, Things just look tired, that's all. They've grown and now they're ready to give it up for fall and then for winter.
Not this year. Things are unusually green for fall. Beautiful, but very, very green.
We've had lots of rain, which is also unusual this time of year...its kept us out of the field for the past couple of weeks. Well, not completely out, but less tilling etc. than we'd like. Things are looking up for the fall vegetables, although the pumpkins are marginal. Hints of viruses and disease brought on by too much wet....we'll have to wait and see. Same with the winter squash. Again, we'll have to see. Will has been yanking a plant or two out of the ground every couple of days. When one plant has a virus, you have to remove it, or it will infect the other plants. That's just the way it is...a little dry weather would go a long way at this point.
Here we have the 'cats on a fence' phenomena...And here, we have the first very beautiful Acorn Squash.
SO; tonight's embarrassingly fabulous menu: FRIED chicken. FRIED Sweet Potato Chips; FRIED slices of Acorn Squash. Yes. A truly Southern dinner. Everything FRIED!!!!
I think we are feeling the effects of many weeks with no sugar of any kind and no processed carbs. (!) The sweet potato chips were the highlight, I must say. There is a company down here named 'ZAPPS'. It's a chips thing. They make all manner of wonderful potato chips spiced with things we love: cajun stuff and vinegar and like that. Up until a year ago, you could always get ZAPPS Sweet Potato Chips. But they don't make them anymore. And we really wanted them. So we made our own. Better than ZAPPS. And there's a whole field of sweet potatoes out there. yea.

Two pictures on this Saturday night...

First, we have this;
Two tons of chicken manure from Mississippi + one very old FarmAll tractor plowing it under.
and you get: really pretty dirt. You must admit, that is a glorious color...

and here is picture #2:
In the 'yes, we have bananas' category. How cool. I still don't understand why the flower is not open, yet the fruit has set. Obviously, I know nothing about bananas. (!) In this part of the country, lots of people have banana plants (or trees) and they freeze back every year. And not many folks we know have ever actually HAD bananas. But Will has been taking care of this plant, cutting back the frozen stalks and wrapping the trunk, for a couple of years now. I read that once a stalk produces, it will not produce again, Only the new growth will produce. We were both surprised to look up and see this. It is a first for us. We only planted this for decorative purposes, not to actually GET any bananas! surprise!

A Dead Picnic Table and the Rebirth of the Zinnias

Ah, me. I could tell you stories about this picnic table. It was from 'the farm'. the original 'farm'. And that was long ago and far away. Our daughter's outdoor sixth birthday party. Countless fish fries and all-garden summer feasts. It was built, I think, by a guy named Scott. It has moved as we have moved...many times. And it has been out by the barn, with tall, tall grass growing up through it this summer. Too heavy to move, even to mow under. And Will says it's over. So, as I respect his opinion on the death of useful things, I can be sad but not too sad. True, it doesn't look like junk. But Will says it's junk. So there you have it.And then, apropos to the name of this very website, we have this fall's 'accidental zinnias'. They were a row in the herb beds. They were mowed down. They re-seeded. I asked that Will please not plow the little babies under. He respected my wishes. thank you. And now, we have flowers in the middle of the sad late year herbs beds. Beautiful, no? We also have the 'not-accidental' zinnias, planted a couple of weeks ago, and coming along for the fall. not nearly as impressive. But, patience, patience.

Can you believe this?

tropical depression to hurricane in FOURTEEN HOURS!

just goes to show
you can't take your eyes off the tropics for a minute this time of year.
We're crossing our fingers about the rainfall.
the garden can only take so much, and we remember the heartbreaking 'remnants of Allison' back in late June of whatever year that was...more than 23 inches of rain here in three days. 350 tomato and pepper plants, loaded with fruit...drowned. dead as the proverbial doornail. It was very sad. We won't get that much, but we stand to get more than we want on the garden. Can't do anything about it...we'll just have to wait and see.

http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200709_n0z.html?extraprod=n0z#a_topad

Fall Crops...

In case you're wondering what's actually happening with the crops...
we have, at the moment:
Sweet Potato mayhem: 500 little plants that have done well and will be harvested relatively soon.
Keep in mind that, as a customer, you should probably get a crate of them and keep them to 'cure' into the winter.Fall tomatoes and peppers are in the field and coming along. It will be a while yet, but know they are doing well. We'll let you know....
The 'Winter Squash' are doing quite well, and setting fruit. These are Acorn and Butternut squashes. They don't come in as quickly as summer squash, but store very well.Summer squash (yellow, zucchini), and cucumbers are up in the flat. Even though they aren't yet in the field, they'll produce in a big hurry once they're set out.

And then there are the pumpkins...pie pumpkins and jack-o-lantern pumpkins. Lots of blooms but no fruit set as of yet. I haven't talked to Will about this, but I think the nights are not cool enough yet...not to worry...there will be pumpkins. For those of you who have little ones who want to pick a pumpkin for Halloween, I don't think it will be a problem, but here we are at this moment:
You can see the buds and the spent bloom...
For those of you who groove on the beginnings of the garden, you can see things are on their way. We will be planting rows of beans (red, green, yellow) this week. And lettuces and spinach of course. Any questions? drthais@cox.net. Ask them here.
In the meantime, we have honey from the hives available, and if you want a 'first fishing experience' for the kids, weekend pond fishing is available. Let us know if you want details about that!

Definitely NOT a catfish!

So..Will and I have been trying to catch catfish out of the pond. Last weekend we thought we'd just haul in a few and have them in the fridge for the week. Well...come to find out, our catfish are WAY smarter than that. I'm here to tell you that last Sunday, they actually HID from us...and this is true.
Every night, we feed them. They come up by the dozens and swarm on the surface of the pond, gobbling up all the food. The perch don't even stand a chance. We have to haul off and sling fish food way out for the perch. Well. once the catfish figured out we were actually FISHING for them, they didn't come to the dock at all. They were nowhere. We were puzzled. I even caught Will out in the night with a flashlight on the other side of the pond, kind of looking around in the water. It was very curious.
So, this evening we gave it another go. He left the fountain on, I think for cover. And when I got out there, he was being very quiet and fishing really deep off the end of the dock. I joined in, not having much hope. He caught a really big catfish. I was impressed, and hopeful. We were sitting there staring at our corks, and he was telling me...'you know, with catfish, you have to be patient" ok, patience. I can do that. Then he says..."look. see? (and he's getting a bite) "just let him take it. let him pull it way under." Hey! another one! And he pulls it to the surface. But. Uh.
It's not a catfish. It's the ugliest nastiest snapping turtle you've ever seen! I mean, EEwww!
He was hooked pretty good. Will kind of drags him over to the bank. 'I need a shovel" he says. A shovel? By the time I get to the barn and back, I won't even get a picture~! wait!. So I run in to get the camera. And the closest implement at hand is a big hoe. So I brought him that. But the turtle is in a vile mood by now, snapping and whatnot. And he breaks free of the hook and sinks under the dock. So there you have it. He's down there. Somewhere. I figure there's 1000 fish in that pond, so he's eatin' pretty well. Oh, and p.s.///after the first catfish was caught, the rest of them disappeared. Will had to wait until after a rainstorm and threw out a big load of fish food. Then he had them all confused and caught two more. But there are 200 of them in that pond. And it seems like all 200 come to dinner every evening. So we'll have to come up with a fairly clever strategy about this.