Gardening at Night*

And so it begins:

Garden, version 2008. We did not manage to raise seedlings this year (except for leeks), which didn't seem to be an auspicious beginning, but things are growing now. We've had a goodly amount of rain, which is good at the start, but I hope it backs off now that most of the plants are well established.

We will have a lot of tomatoes, 36 plants in all -- Supersweet 100s, which are small cherry tomatoes and are perfect in salads and for drying and roasting; Brandywine, so I can say I have at least one heirloom tomato in my garden, Romas and First Lady (I don't know anything about these). Len and I are strange, we don't really like raw tomatoes very much. But I make and can salsa, sauce (plain), ketchup, plus canning them whole(ish).

A row and a half of green, purple and yellow beans. They freeze really well. Obviously we will continue to grow our usual crop of weeds. They don't freeze well, but insist on showing up anyway.

Jalapenos and something called cherry peppers (which look pretty), for the salsa and pickling (honeyed pickled hot peppers are to die for!) No red bell peppers this year, they are much too frustrating.

Cucumbers for pickles (my sister, a niece and a friend of ours like my kosher dills, I don't know why, I think they're weird) and for dill and sweet relish.

And finally:

Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts.

Whew. It will be a labor intensive summer and fall. I'm glad I have the knitting retreat** in the middle of canning, I'll need to get away.

*I'm having an REM moment. I have a whole discourse on REM but I'll spare you the pain. Gardening at Night is from Dead Letter Office, a compilation of b-sides and outtakes (including an extremely drunken version of "King of the Road" which cracks me up).

**Sharon, I meant to say earlier, the retreat is in Silver Falls State Park, which is south and a little east of Portland. I'm so excited I could spit! (what a stupid expression...)