Why I Oughta...

Lately I've been trying to get out to the garden in the morning before I get going on work.  It is nice and cool, there aren't many bugs and I can grab everything I can in 10-15 quick minutes.  We're clearly entering the heavy harvest time as I'm pulling out 2 buckets of tomatoes/zuchs/eggplants/peppers/onions every day. Here's today's harvest - which included many tomato varieties including German Johnson, Green Zebra, Mr. Stripey, Pineapple, Beefsteaks, Caspian Pink, Napa Grape, Red Cherry, and my favorite the Roma.  Also are a few zucchinis, bell peppers, jalepenos, and a small  onion.    Some of them aren't perfectly ripe - and those were mostly the ones I either knocked off when picking ripe fruit or they were knocked off some other way and were on the ground.  I figured I had to pick those up and let them ripen off the vine. The timing couldn't be worse - because it is going to be tough to make the sauce and can it, but we're going to try!

Found the kitchen scale.  More than 2 pounds!

When I put in my raised garden beds, I was expecting to see a slight increase in production of fruit/veggies because of the warmer soil conditions.  I was very careful to only use organic fertilizers that lack the power punch of chemicals when it comes to boosting the size of my tomatoes, so I figured I'd get fairly average sized fruits.  I hoped for the best. Some of the varieties went like crazy and others are still mostly green.  The Mr. Stripey's however, are just ripening and there aren't very many of them.  Maybe 8-10 tops.  But...they're all absolutely HUGE.  Feels a lot like a 16" softball in my hand.  I can't quite grip it comfortably it is so big! Being a parent, the "control" item in this photo happens to be a pacifier.  Could have used a quarter or something, but this was around. I can't find my kitchen scale, so I can't get a precise reading, but when I used our bathroom scale, I stepped on then stepped off.  Then picked up t

It is as suprising to you as it is to me that I suddenly care about the playground equipment at my local parks, but I really do!  And, that's why this story about how Elmhurst is thinking about rehabbing some play areas in the Tribune  (and Trib Local) grabbed my interest - which is where, incidentally,  I grabbed this photo from Specifically, they're interested in getting feedback on the playground equipment at Wilder Park (and the park layout in general) - which is the most centrally-located park and the largest one that is close to our downtown.  They're thinking pretty big on some issues, but also working on some specific quality-of-life details like they are already considering a rubberized surface instead of the current wood chips (nice!).    Of special note to me is that they're using Google Docs as the host for their public presentation  and YouTube to host the ir videos of the Wilder Park site .  Nice use of the Cloud, Elmhurst Park District!  The full deck f

I think we might have spotted him on the South Side this afternoon.  He even is rocking a "PBA" license plate holder.

Always tough games when you go up against a Big Ten team. But the JAYS came out strong and now w e're 3-0 heading in an off week.  Big day for the kickers, too.  1 FB, 3-3 PATs. The Maroons have really great old-school uniforms and VERY prominantly display the Chicago Bears--esque "C" - which may be where the Bears logo came from!

Hi there Lazyweb, Anyone know what this is?  It is growing like crazy in our garden - and up our fence.  Unfortunately, I don't know what it is.  How is that, you ask?  Well....this thing sprung up from our compost. All of my research on the web says that it isn't a pure watermelon - they sprout in much rounder shapes.  We have a few different types of gords growing (jack be littles and such), but they're all identifiable.  I remember what we had last year at Halloween time and remember throwing them all in the compost bin.  But....we didn't have anything like this. Could we have created a super-beast?  A hybrid gourd out of our own compost?  I know that there are watermelon-colored gourds ( see here ) and that there are gourds that have half orange - half green.  This one is all green.  And...shaped like an eggplant ! The vine has about 8 of them growing, so perhaps I'll cut one open and see if the fruit is red?