Why I Oughta...

I spent not-quite-a-day at the races today celebrating with Bill at a portion of his Bachelor's party.  While the fine folks at Arlington Park wished me well, lets just say that it wasn't a great afternoon of wagering.  And it wasn't because I lost.

On the heels of my first zucchini ripening, I found the first of our Yellow Crookneck Squash ready to be picked.   And it is a big one, too!  A bunch of the photos of these beauties around the web show them with bumps - almost like a Halloween gourd, but mine are smooth - and have a very tiny/soft prickle on them RIGHT when you pick it.  There's not much 'crook' to the neck of this first one, but some of the other ones I can see growing are a bit more curved.

I just came back from six days away from my garden to find a wild, out-of-control mess.  Everything shot up fast and is not relenting.  The tomatoes - as usual - are tipping their cages and I have to find an alternative to the current set up.  And fast. Other plants are moving along well, too.  Most notably, the zuchinni plants.  There appears to have been enough cross-pollination to sprout a few different fruits.  I pulled the first one off (above) and it looks great.  Shiny, firm.  And...most importantly not too terribly lumpy.  Based on my tests last year, I think the uneven shape of fruits is because of uneven watering.  With my auto system going this year, I'm trying to avoid that.  The smallish 'tip' was started before I put the watering system into place, I think.

I spent the better part of this week in our nation's capitol and with the projects on my plate, it appears that we'll be getting closely acquainted.  I've been to DC only a handful of times and I can start to get used to the place.

This is the first time I'm growing Ruby Red Cabbage.  I was looking for some new crops to introduce to both widen the scope of what I was growing but also as a way to help aid in my rotation goal to reduce the stress on the soil.  These started as seedlings and have really spread out big time.  I planted them the recommended distance apart and they've mostly grown together.  Up until this morning, I was wondering what was going to happen:  would the current leaves curl back up and form the head?  Or would something else entirely form?  Based on this post , it seems that the cabbage head will sprout up in the middle of the current leaves.  Nat was a little skeptical about cabbage.  After all....what were we going to do with it?  Besides making a big batch of cole slaw, what else can we do with it?  Give it away?  But after seeing them grow, she *actually* likes them and thinks that we should think about planting them elsewhere in the landscape because they're so nea

A month back, Nat and I snuck out for a date night that included a stop at a pizza place on our list and a comedy show that was part of the TBS Just for Laughs Comedy Festival .  We picked Spacca Napoli - #15 on the list of the Top 25 Pizza Places in Chicago.  And while it comes in ahead of such notables as Louisa's and Aurelio's, I can tell you that this one is ranked too high.  The place itself couldn't be cuter.  It appears to just spring up in the middle of a residential neighborhood and has a ton of outdoor seating.  It is VERY popular and we had to wait about an hour to get our table.  We weren't in any hurry, so that was fine.  We ended up sitting outside and as the night wore on, the temperature dropped.  So, we might have outsmarted ourselves with the outdoor seats. The menu is filled with what we've come to expect at most neopolitan places:  a few twists on the Margherita and a bunch of white pies.  I went with the Diavola and Nat (surprisingly) wen

We have a handful of squash plants in the garden and the yellow ones are the furthest ahead.  Lots of blooms on this plant so hopefully they'll grow out into squash.  Uneven watering can be detrimental to these little beauties as they'll start to grow uneven over time.