I’m normally about as far from being a gardener as you can get. I don’t like being outside all that much. I loathe having dirt under my fingernails. Bending over is hard these days thanks to back issues and kneeling is out completely. That said, I like gardens. I like flowers. And I like eating things. This year has been a banner year in the Ek family backyard, where we’ve managed to grow several…crops.
Thanks to getting net on the cherry tree, we enjoyed a month-long bonanza of delicious sweet cherries. It’s hard to believe I had practically never even eaten cherries before I turned 40.
Then I bought some starter vegetables from a colleague and have spent most of this incredibly dry, hot summer determined to keep them alive, only to discover that vegetables apparently LOVE the back side of the house and all the hot, hot sun, with a good dousing every evening. Our scallions went bananas and poofed up into a huge tufty bunch of green onion spears. The green pepper plant has rewarded us with two bright orange beauties and a couple more on the way. The little chili pepper plant has several small spiky green chillis coming (we don’t know how long before they turn red, though), and the cherry tomatoes have taken over the entire wall. We can’t even open our bedroom window all the way. Next year, they’re getting moved over to remedy that!
A week ago we harvested the “new” potatoes that Anders planted. They were all small, ranging in size from marble to slightly-bigger-than-a-golf-ball. They came to about half a big bowlful and we boiled them for dinner, and served them with salmon and asparagus and Bernaise sauce. They were buttery and DELICIOUS. We will be doing that again, for sure…maybe planning for twice as many and twice the harvests, now that we sort of know what we’re doing, in regards to potatoes.
Every evening for the past several weeks, when I’ve gone out to water, I’ve come back in with a handful or two of ripe or nearly ripe perfect little round tomatoes. So fun to throw them into the salads I make and bring to work. It’s best to grow things that we will actually eat, you know? 😀
And that’s not even including the unexpected, serendipitous plums! We can’t take credit for those at all. Anders picked everything that was left on the tree-bush-shrub-green-giant; another bowlful to make marmalade from, but we’ll see if it gets made, as they are already pretty well past ripe and he’s out in the garage working on the finish of the kayak which is now glued together and getting close to being done!
Anyway, I guess part of it is just the luck of being home in the summer months…we couldn’t have done any of this “farming” at all if we’d been in the States for 3-4 weeks like the previous two years. Getting to eat yummy things that you have grown and actually like kind of…grows on you. Hah!
I have a birthday at the end of this week, but it’s not a major one, and with Anders gone for the upcoming weekend and Martin in the States, I’m not really feeling like celebrating. Karin has mentioned going to Malmöfestivalen for the evening as it’s opening night, but I’m not sure I want to brave the madness, even for the lure of langos and churros. The heat has given us a respite, at least a couple of days, and it was dotting random drops of rain on my head when I went out to water tonight, so maybe we’ll actually get a downpour. I hope it stays cool for awhile, though it’s still humid…or maybe that’s just me. HOT FLASH alert. GAH.
I read recently that hot flashes can plague women in menopause for up to 10 years. Most women experience them for an average of SEVEN. I haven’t even been having them for a year yet, but I already know I won’t make it. I’ll have to move to Siberia.
Looking forward to: staying up for the Perseids this weekend, getting together with my friends Debbie & Camilla, finalizing plans for Christmas, book group on Thursday