Life is like a bowl of cherries

Or maybe life is like a bowl of cherry tomatoes.




I think there comes a time in every vegetable gardener's life when they question their sanity over planting more than one cherry tomato plant. These were picked just last night. It took forever for me to pick them because the plants have created a mini jungle and are now up and over the 5' tall cages and sprawling along the ground. For those mathematically challenged people out there, that means the plants are well over 10' tall. I was trying to figure out exactly how tall, but ran out of toes. At least I've got plenty of cherry tomatoes to can this incredible ginger marinade that I found last year. I will share the recipe once it's in the jar and I have pretty pictures to go along with it.

I picked my first watermelon last night! Yes, it's small. And yes, it's supposed to be yellow. For those of you who have never tried a yellow, orange, or white watermelon... shame on you! You just don't know what you're missing. This particular specimen is a Pony Yellow watermelon. It grows small so it's the perfect size for a single serving. I had never been a watermelon fan until I started growing these babies about five years ago. When I brought this one in last night I was reluctant to share it with Glenn. But since he was busy coring, cleaning, and freezing the 20lbs of tomatoes I had also picked last night, I was shamed into sharing. I love the yellow ones, but tops on my list would be the Tendersweet Orange watermelons. It's a shame my plants didn't make it this year.




And here is the long awaited Litchi tomato. It's a good thing I snapped the picture when I did, because they didn't last long! This small handful was gone within seconds of the camera click. And might I add... YUM! These are definitely a keeper for next year's plant list. Now I just need to figure out a way to preserve them, because in about a week I'll be inundated with the little red buggers. I'm sure they'd freeze ok, which may be the way to go until I figure out something better, like jam... mmmm.




The cucumber plants are finally dead. YAY. But I still had a basket full of cukes to deal with. Then on Saturday, it hit me. Dehydrate them. Sure why not? The first experimental batch I did was sliced way too thin and a lot of the slices ended up sticking to the dehydrator and coming off in pieces. But they were GOOD. And surprisingly, they didn't take long at all at 135 degrees. I got another batch started late yesterday afternoon and this time I made the slices about 1/4" thick. My dehydrator has four trays, so I sprinkled one tray with garlic powder, the second with dried dill weed, and the last two with sea salt. They were done this morning, and whoa Nelly! I was hoping they'd be a nice treat dipped in sour cream and chives come December, but I really don't foresee them lasting that long. Glenn was popping them left and right and I especially like the dill weed chips.




We started working on the "nursery" fence over the weekend. We're almost done getting all the posts in and just need to get a couple rolls of field fence and a gazillion and one fence staples. Once the fence is done I'll move Dolly and Junior into the pasture since they need the grass more and it will be easier for me to keep an eye on Dolly if she's closer to the house. Once we have the two stall barn in place, Junior and Dolly will go back into the big pasture and Meghan and Jewel will move into the nursery. I'd love to keep Dolly in with Meghan, but the two girls don't particularly get along. They both seem afraid of each other, even though neither one of them has even so much as laid an ear back at the other and they are both very low on the totem pole.

Appybutt also went home over the weekend. It was a sad goodbye and I still hear him calling for Mav and Hunter every now and then. Once Appybutt was gone we moved Stride, Indy, Chief, and Manny into the back with Mav and Hunter. There's a lot more grass back there, and it makes feeding the old fogies a little easier since they are directly behind the house. Once the winter weather gets here everyone will be turned out together in the big pasture except of course for Meghan and Jewel. It's getting time to revisit the whole Maverick gelding fiasco from several months ago. He still hasn't dropped the second nut, so we'll just have to bite the bullet and get the "big surgery" done on him. I have heard of a couple more vets that are a little further away, but will probably be more competent than the ones I've talked to already. We're also supposed to be getting a new vet not far from here, but he hasn't hung out his shingle yet.


I thought I'd end this post with a picture that shows how well the stay off the furniture training is going with Thor. I think he's finally getting it, don't you?