Why I Oughta...

I planted a tiny little cantaloupe vine in the small raised bed that is against our house in late May and mostly forgot about it.  But this morning, as I walked by our basement window, I noticed for the first time that the fruits were starting to form.  There's one tiny one in the middle of the photo and a slightly larger one on the left side.  Melons ( apparently ) love heat, so we've had a good summer to grow them, but I'm wondering how long it will take until these will mature.  Ready by Labor Day?  I sure hope so.

This zucchini somehow got lost in the garden and I let it get away from us a bit.  I used this morning's Sun-Times as a comparison point so that you could understand just exactly how huge this thing is.

The Babe behind the wheel at The Farm at the Museum of Science and Industry.

I'll have to go around to all the various social network places and swap out my old avatar image with this one, right?  Found it on Illinois Loyalty .

The Babe and her cousin got busy making their own pizza pies at the Addison Home Run Inn restaurant.  Once a week, they run a special that allows kids to put on chef hats and build their own pizza pies.  The dough comes out already rolled in the pan and they give you a tin cup of cheese, sauce and your toppings.  We had sausage and pepperoni in these two pies.  Couldn't have been more fun.

It was just a few days ago that I posted a photo of our Golden Hops vine shooting upwards on the trellis.  Taking a look at the photo above, you can see that the vine has almost doubled in height.  Just counting the number of whole 'diamonds' just to left of the center point on the trellis, we can see that the vine has shot up the height of five full 'diamonds'.  It was at 3 full 'diamonds' on Monday.  It is listed as a fast-grower, but the conditions must be right this week. The only disappointing part of this whole experience is that the gratification is going to be delayed.  FOR A YEAR.  That's right....everything I've read says that we shouldn't expect to see any hops until the 2nd year after the vine has been established.  Coupled with the very late planting date I put this in the ground, and we have to cross our fingers that by late next summer, we'll be swimming in golden green hops.

The mulch has been placed.  About 2 months late by our neighor's standards, but....at least it is in place.  That's what I'm telling myself.

Came home to find my aloe plant had taken a tumble and the pot cracked down around the rim.  The pot was a McCoy and I *think* came out of my Dad's collection.  Bummer. Now...Nat's never been a huge fan of my Aloe plant, but I don't think she had any hard feelings toward the pot.  If she did and there never was a storm, we could have had a "Ralphie's mother breaks the Leg Lamp" type of situation here. " Not a Finger !"

Less than one month ago, I planted a Golden Hops vine on the north side of our house right under a new trellis.  Then we went on vacation for more than a week to Michigan while we were in the hottest part of the summer.  When we came back home, the Hops vine was sad and brittle.  I've since given it a  lot of love (and water!) and we're now seeing it climb right up the center of the trellis. Everything I've read says that we won't get much in terms of a Hops harvest this fall, but in year two, we'll be loaded with some green beauties that my brother-in-laws can turn into a Christmas Ale.

We were in Williams Sonoma yesterday and came across these Brookster Pans.  I consider myself to be someone who somewhat keeps up with baking blogs and the like and I had never heard of these things.  A quick search on the web and it looks like everyone is pointing to the same place that I am - Williams Sonoma where they sell a Brookster mix and - as you can see above - a Brookster pan. So, did W-S create the Brookster?  Are they trying to build something of their own like the Whoopie Pie?  Pretty neat idea, if that's the way this shook out.