Instead of a giant game of seek and find – we now had a recovery mission.

I sent Angel Girl and Buddy in the patch on a beautiful fall afternoon to find and harvest all the pumpkin and squash.

They gathered over 50 sugar pumpkins and about the same number of butternut squash.

Oh. my.

At least our squash-loving wood chuck left us a few! Ha!

I guess I need to find some friends or we’ll be eating a lot of pumpkin pie this winter.

But that number was nothing compared to the real surprise we found under the dead vines -

ornamental gourds.

Millions and millions of them.

And we didn’t even plant them this year.

We obviously missed a few gourds in our cleaning up last fall and they seeded themselves and came up as volunteers.

We also obviously missed the fact that they were gourds when we were weeding. But then – it’s amazing how similar the leaves look to both pumpkins and squash. Really it is.

But we are determined to not make the same mistake again. No sir.

We spent hours picking up gourds this week and composting them FAR away from the garden on the wood pile in the north pasture.

Pedro dumped over 10 wheelbarrows full of gourds.

We’re talking thousands of the pesky things.

At one point, as we were braving the cold north wind on our hands and knees picking up the mutant gourds,  Dagmar looked at me and said, “We’re never planting these things again, right Mom?”

Never again! Although if we miss one of these this fall – we may not have to plant them!

And if we don’t burn that compost pile in the north pasture soon enough, by next fall they may have overtaken it, too.

Oh well. We’ll worry about that next fall.

But for now we have free ornamental gourds! All you can use! Come early for the best selection and bring your own wheelbarrow!

Now I know some people get really fancy with their poppers – with breading and bacon and the whole nine yards.

Personally – I really love them that way, but just can’t justify the time or extra calories several times a week.

So we’ve come up with a much simpler version that allows us to each poppers 3 or 4 nights a week – which is a very happy thing!

We wash the jalapeno peppers, cut off the stem end, and slice them lengthwise. Then we use a metal measuring spoon to dig out the seeds and fill the cavity with cream cheese.

We put them on a foil lined baking sheet and bake them at 350 for about 30 minutes. When they are soft and the cream cheese is brown and bubbly – we just put the entire pan in the middle of the table and feast!

And I do mean feast! It’s every man, woman and child for themselves! We call it the “popper roulette” because you never know whether the one you choose is going to be a hot one.

Every once in a while the chef may leave a popper with the seeds and membranes in it so that one unsuspecting victim will get a a real kick!

As we shoveled them in tonight, Dagmar wondered if there were any other crazy families out there who sit at the supper table and pop poppers like candy?

I sure hope so! It’s one very tasty family tradition!

I’ve linked this post with Tasty Tuesdays at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace.

The entire bottom third of the big garden is one solid mess of vines – mostly butternut squash and sugar pumpkins.

And I do mean a solid mess.

There must be a ga-zillion squash and pumpkins in there – but I really don’t venture too far in to explore.

You see – the other day I tried it and something furry and four-legged rustled through the vines ahead of me.

It’s probably just a bunny – but you can never be too careful about things like that. I’m remembering our recent woodchuck with a fondness for winter squash.

He may have friends.

Maybe if I wore hip boots. Do you think a wood chuck could bite through rubber?

On second thought – maybe I’ll just wait for a nice frost so the vines die away a little!

Then there’s my monster tomato plants.

These things are like small trees!

They are huge and they are everywhere. It’s a nightmare to pick them.

You know how tomato vines make your arms turn green and leave a sticky slimy stuff when you touch them? I get covered with it every time I pick! I have to literally claw my way through the plants and reach way inside the tomato cages to finally get the tomatoes.

It’s a nasty job and nobody wants to do it.

I think my kids would rather scrub the bathroom floor with a toothbrush than go into the garden and pick tomatoes!

Note to self:  next year plant the tomatoes much further apart.

And get more and stronger tomato cages!

But in all seriousness – I love this season in the garden! It’s all about harvesting and enjoying – about planning your meals around what you just picked.

Even if it means wearing full-battle gear to get the harvest!

I’ve linked this post up with The Tuesday Garden Party over at The Oregon Cottage.

Fresh salsa is one of our most addicting tasty ones.

Every year we gather at my parent’s house Labor Day weekend for an early Christmas.

And since my folks, sisters and I all have gardens, every year we bring whatever happens  to be producing at that time.

Tomatoes and peppers dominate.

So the fresh salsa tradition began. Every morning as the breakfast dishes are cleared, someone starts chopping for that day’s batch.

The recipe is simple – chopped tomatoes, chopped green peppers, chopped onions, chopped garlic. A little vinegar, or lime juice or lemon juice, some cilantro, salt and pepper and you’re done.

The proportions depend on the chef and the produce available. Once the ingredients are mixed, we all grab a chip and sample. A little more cilantro. Too many peppers, add a few more tomatoes.  Maybe a touch more salt.  Several samples later – we declare it perfect!

This tradition – however -  is not without it’s controversies.

Personally – I don’t need any extra sugar in my diet or my salsa- but my sister Sandy does. Whenever I made the salsa – she would always try to slip some sugar in it when I wasn’t looking.  I finally decided that if having sugar in her salsa was that important – she could make it the way she wanted.

She’s been doing a lot chopping ever since!

Then, we discovered this trip that there were <gasp> certain members in the family who didn’t care for the taste of cilantro in their salsa.

I know it’s shocking – but true.

So Sandy made two bowls – one with for those of us with refined and discerning taste buds who appreciate the robust and wonderful taste of cilantro and one for the poor souls who don’t understand what they are  missing.

But the most shocking controversy is that of the missing salsa. One morning a few years back, we had made our daily bowl of salsa, Sandy had slipped her extra sugar in, and we left it on the counter while we “aunts” all headed out to the thrift store with Nana.

When we returned the bowl was empty, save for a stray onion bit floating in a little juice in the bottom!

Horrors! Our daily bowl of salsa was gone! All of  our efforts – the chopping, mixing and tasting were for naught.

The “aunts” were not happy.

All fingers pointed to little Lydia, my three-year-old niece who was sitting at the counter on her daddy’s lap with an empty bowl of salsa in front of them.

Lydia ate that entire large bowl of salsa? How could she – she’s only three years old?!

She had to have had help. There was someone sitting in that room with a bad case of salsa breath and a guilty conscience.

We all have our suspicions on who her accomplice was – but the culprit was never punished for his crime.

While we continue to wait for a full confession – we have learned to never leave our salsa unattended.

Fresh salsa is just one of those traditions that we take seriously. Very seriously.

Trust me – I sighed a big sigh of relief when I saw that it was ripe and had not yet gone to sugar!

So how did I know when to pick it?

I followed my friend Martha’s example – I thumped it.

Now I’ve thumped many a grocery store melon pretending to know what I was doing – in hopes of bringing home a good one. But they all sounded the same.

So when Martha thumped my first melon and proclaimed it done – I thumped it too. Then I thumped this melon that was smaller. I could hear the difference. The ripe melon sounded hollow – or full of water and echo-ey. The non-ripe melon sounded dull and full.

The reason I could never hear the difference in the grocery store melons was because all of those melons were ripe. I was trying to thump them to find a good tasting one – which doesn’t work.

I’ve been thumping this guy for more than a week now – just waiting for that hollow – echo-ey sound.

The stem was still green and attached and the bottom of the melon still looked white – but I heard that echo, so I picked it. Thankfully it was ripe and tasty. The thump test worked again!

So am I now a  “thumping” expert? Not even close!

Right now I’m just wishing for a few more watermelons on my plants so I can practice my newly-discovered knowledge!

Happy thumping!

Corn on the cob – all you can eat. Green beans – lightly steamed and dripping with butter. Summer squash in every form imaginable. And what about the tomatoes!

Is there anything as wonderful as a fresh, vine-ripened tomato?

Unless it’s something made from that fresh, vine-ripened tomato! Something like BLT’s, fresh salsa, bruschetta, or our favorite – pasta with fresh tomatoes.

Just peel 8 medium tomatoes. Chop, seed and drain.

Combine 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1 clove of garlic (crushed), 1 tablespoon of fresh parsley chopped, 1 teaspoon basil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 of a green pepper (chopped) and 16 black olives, sliced.

Add tomatoes and set aside at room temperature.

Cook 8 ounces of pasta according to directions. Drain and place in serving bowl. Add tomato mixture and toss. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Yum!

We’re still in the honeymoon stage with tomatoes- enjoying all we can eat fresh – but don’t have quite enough yet to can.

Then there’s my pride and joy – my watermelons – both of them.

The melons didn’t like the heat and drought of July. But thanks to the boys faithful watering, we saved one watermelon plant with 2 watermelons on it.

I was a little scared to pick the big one – but my friend Martha just gave it a thunk and proclaimed it done.

She was right – it was perfect!

I may just have to call her to come and thunk the next one in a few weeks.

So what’s on tonight’s menu?

All you can eat fresh corn on the cob (Pedro holds the record with 6 ears at one meal) and chicken wraps (with roasted yellow squash, green peppers, onions and garlic for the more adventurous eaters!)

Lip-smacking goodness!

With the help of the electric fence AND 2 radios playing full blast all night – we managed to harvest the sweet corn before the coons!

This victory is even more sweet when you remember our battles with the coon earlier this spring. We ended that fight with the coon ahead by one baby chick.

The only thing coons like more than baby chicks is fresh, ripe, corn on the cob.

Let’s just say this evens the score.

Coon – 1, Us – 1.

Take that you pesky varmints.

By Robert Louis Stevenson

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener’s garters, Shepherd’s purse,
Bachelor’s buttons, Lady’s smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames -
These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny treetops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grownup people’s trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.

…in less than 36 hours you are given 9  zucchinis!

BIG ones, too!

As my friend Martha said to me as she handed me a bag full of the veggies, “Be careful what you wish for!”

Right now I’m wishing for roasted Italian zucchini with Parmesan cheese – and thanks to my sweet friends – I’m going to get it!

Once I found the plants again, I had some pleasant surprises!The corn has been  growing fast and already has tassels and silk. My mouth waters just looking at it!
I found several baby watermelon tucked away under the leaves.
The winter squash, pumpkin and some volunteer gourds have taken over the bottom section! I see several little pumpkins  and butternut squash forming, but absolutely no zucchini or summer squash.

Am I the only one in the world who can’t grow a zucchini?

But I can grow cucumbers! I had to pull a lot of weeds before I even uncovered the plant – and very excited to find this guy hiding in the leaves. Isn’t it beautiful? 

And then there’s our summer staple – the fresh green bean. We’ve had just enough to eat fresh -  lightly steamed and served with butter. Yum!

Somehow all the sweat and hard work is worth it when you see those fresh veggies on the table!

I’ve linked this post up with the Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage.