chromedome

A few random photos from my garden, which is finally hitting its stride after a cold and wet start to the summer (and yeah, I'm in the midst of another week of sporadic rain). My pumpkin has really big blossoms: Those were taken yesterday, when I had only male blossoms on the plant. This morning I had both male and female blossoms open, and hand-pollinated since pollinating insects aren't super-active in the rain. For those who don't know the difference, here's an illustrative example: The blossoms on the right - all of them - are male, as evidenced by their skinny stems. The one in the foreground on the left is a female blossom. That bulge beneath the blossom will become a pumpkin if fertilized. I have two of these plants in large pots, and will prune back each one to just two pumpkins. They're a variety called 'Pepita,' which has hull-less seeds ideal for roasting and snacking. The pots aren't especially large for such a heavy-feeding plant, but the bottom half is all rabbit compost (ie, manure and bedding) so I'm confident I'll run out of frost-free weather before the pumpkins run out of nutrients. My tomatoes seem to be doing pretty well this year, despite my early-season difficulties (the seedlings were in my greenhouse when a high wind deconstructed it for me). On the left are my slicing tomatoes, mostly Black Krim. On the left are my Romas. I have potatoes in a couple of conventional beds, but also thought I'd try the notion of a "potato box": keep adding soil as the plants grow, and they'll keep pushing out new spuds along their whole length. In theory, you can get a remarkably high yield from a small square footage by doing this. I need to add another couple of boards' height to the box and top it up with another 10-12 inches of soil, whenever it stops bloody raining. But hey, so far so good! ...and my garlic is on the homestretch, now. It's sternum-height on me (admittedly, I only stand 5' 7", but still...) and just beginning to brown at the tips. Bulb growth is now in full swing, with the scapes having been removed a couple of weeks ago. I'll harvest them in a month or so. I won't sweat weeding these beds until I've harvested the garlic, since it's handily out-competing the grass at the moment. Then the beds will get a cold-tolerant late crop, probably kale or chard. I also have a few beds of bush beans that are on the verge of starting to produce. The green is a variety called 'Provider,' the yellow is called 'Monte Gusto,' and there's a more delicate filet bean called 'Moscotte.' The latter is the one the mastiff was snacking on. I'm beginning to see buds on the first two, but my Moscotte bed is a week or two behind. The dog-eaten stems have largely regenerated, to my relief, and aren't far behind the others. That's about half of the garden. At some point in the next little while I'll get pics of the rest.

Laying breeds just don't put on weight fast enough. They wouldn't be cost-effective as a commercial meat bird (dual-purpose birds are typically a backyard or homestead option).

https://www.reuters.com/science/gene-tech-spares-male-chicks-cull-by-preventing-them-hatching-2023-07-17/

I know it as Romesco sauce, though I believe there's a different Catalan name for it. That was my thought too. I always associate pipian with pumpkin seeds, though I know less of Mexican food than most of you and may just be unfamiliar with other versions of the sauce.

In fairness, the domestic market is large enough to be going on with.

The "dinner" part, of course, makes it eligible for this thread.

It's real kale. I've grown it and it's perfectly fine, though I find it less productive than other varieties so I don't bother any more. I usually grow a lacinato type (or two) which I'll occasionally eat as a salad, and a curly type which is purely for cooking. Why? Because I like them, of course, why else? I also harvest large quantities of turnip tops, beet tops, radish tops and chard, and the occasional bowl of dandelion greens and wild sorrel. If I could get bloody collards to grow for me here, I'd grow those too, but I didn't bother to try this year. I like my greens.

Okay, kind of a minor one but several second-tier energy drinks are being recalled because their caffeine levels are significantly higher than spec (and, apparently, for lack of bilingual labeling). https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/various-brands-caffeinated-drinks-recalled?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

I have a jar of the ventresca sitting on a shelf a few feet away. I sometimes find it on clearance at Superstore (one of the two dominant chains up here) for half price, presumably as the expiration date approaches, and always buy a few when I see it.

Amazon offers special discounts for Prime members.

In the image caption it's described as a "slag tray," which is even funnier. "WTH you usin' that oven for, Jim-Bob?"

Truthfully I hadn't even realized we had a separate Prime Day of our own. Which tells you how much the whole thing impacts my likelihood of buying anything.

I have dined at homes where three cups of juices could conceivably have been gotten from the bird, because there was definitely no moisture left in its flesh! We know Ann to be an excellent cook, though, so I'd assumed the actual cooking juices were augmented.

I guess this would count as "the ugly"? https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/10/united-airline-amsterdam-flight-diverted-airplane-food

That's the very definition of a successful taste test.

The term was also used in an earlier movie, The Core, from 2003. A select crew had to pilot an experimental vehicle into the earth's core, which had stopped spinning (go ahead, roll your eyes here, everyone does). The vehicle was, of course, made of "unobtainium" which was the only substance that could handle the crushing pressures. Turned them into energy, in fact. The film doesn't live up to its cast (Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Bruce Greenwood, Alfre Woodard) but it's entertaining enough in its B-movie way if you're ever hard up for a couple of hours' entertainment.

LOL I usually get from the front door to the checkout in 5-10 minutes, unless the aisles are too blocked to move at my normal pace. I try to avoid being at Costco during those times of day.

That's not an especially worthy source, as these things go (I declined an offer to write for them because they're so clickbait-y). Yes, high levels of phosphates can result in renal issues (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278747/ ) but the likelihood of an occasional Costco chicken causing kidney failure is pretty damned low. And FWIW, phosphate deficiency can also cause problems (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3402077/ ) so make of that what you will.

Here in my neck of the woods, the not-on-sale price for a whole, uncooked chicken at the supermarket is typically $12-$14 (CDN). On sale, it drops down to maybe $7 or $8. Cost of a rotisserie chicken at the same supermarket would be comparable. The rotisserie bird at Costco sells for $7.99 up here, rather than $4.99 (as in the US), but it's a similar bargain in local terms. To my taste it's over-salted, but cooked properly (so it's tender and juicy) while the supermarket rotisserie birds are almost invariably dry. So when I buy one it's a combination of the low price, the convenience and the fact that it's properly cooked. The over-seasoning isn't as obvious after the bird cools, and it's relatively straightforward to correct for in any case. It's not something I buy a lot, but I appreciate it for what it is. Now that we're in the country, and getting home from a shopping trip takes most of an hour, it's nice to bring home something that makes for a quick meal.

When I was in residence, (cough) years ago, the rumor was that one of my fellow students had succeeded in concealing a microwave in his room for two years by putting a doily and a pair of rabbit ears on top. I never saw this with my own eyes, but it was plausible enough to gain wide credence among us (both microwaves and TVs tended to be large brown boxes in the late 70s).

Apparently I owe the slugs in my garden a (partial) apology. Looked out my window earlier today and found stepdaughter's mastiff grazing on my bean plants. The electric fence goes back up tomorrow (it rained too much today...again...).

Harvested my scapes today, too. May get a pic later. I actually took photos of my garden with the intention of posting them here before I went to NS, but ran out of time and now they're sadly out of date. I'll try to find a few dry hours to get some new photos. I can't currently hill my potatoes or create any new beds because the soil is so sodden, but at least the weeks of wet have been good for weeding. Pulling the little buggers while the soil is wet improves the likelihood of getting them up by the root. It's also been a good few days on "slug patrol." They like the wet, so I've been able to wreak death and destruction on an Old Testament scale within the local gastropod population. They savaged my broccoli beds while I was away, so I was very much in the mood for retribution.

First meaningful harvest for me, yesterday. From L to R: Radish greens, Black Magic kale (a Tuscan/"dinosaur"/lacinato variety), mixed salad greens, chard, and Prism kale (a curly variety). Not pictured, the first dozen or so snap peas which disappeared quickly as a snack. The chard and Black Magic went into my GF's dinner, the radish greens went into mine, the salad greens went into the fridge for the next few days' lunches, and the Prism kale was blanched and frozen. The first of many, many bags of greens that will go into my freezer over the next few months.