Tuesday, August 4, 2015

A Dustland Hat, Romance in the Squash Patch and a Cornbread Zucchini Recipe


It is August already! It is still pretty hot and dry here.Nothing too exciting to report. Sadly, there are no great holidays planned to exotic locales or big events to attend but we do live in an area that many come to for their holidays. We are pretty lucky!

Our favourite beach to go for a pre- dinner swim

When our kids were young we used to pack the tent up and go camping. It was always rather exhausting after a week or so but great fun. We all still laugh about some of our trips.Usually (mostly every time) someone would eat too many treats and have too much sun and feel sick in the middle of the night. We'd hear " Dad, Mom I don't feel too well, I'm going to be sick!!!" We would have maybe three minutes to get that child's head out of the tent before everything came up. As we would scramble to get out of our sleeping bags in order to extract a heaving child out of their bag and to unzip the tent zipper, one of us would be grabbing a much needed flashlight.  Click click, the batteries would be dead. Our little goofballs would have run them down playing monster earlier in the evening. Good grief! That would usually be the signal it was time to go home. Often after braving bugs,bites, dirt, sunburns, sleeplessness, rain (it would always rain), sick kids, we would roll back into our sunny valley with our beautiful lake and look at each other and laugh.What were we thinking!?!



Some Knitting


I did knit another Dustland Hat. I love this pattern, it's interesting to knit and easy to memorize.


It has great texture.


I knit it with Tosh Vintage in Antler.

A Squash Update


 I think I have mentioned more than once our problem back yard.I took this picture back in June. Lots has changed since then! Our bales are doing what we want them to-maybe a little too well! My other challenge was this sloped bed in the forefront of the picture. Up to a couple of years ago, most of our yard was pretty shady in the back. Shade was thrown by our neighbour's  massive Cottonwood trees and some Chinese Elms of our own. Our old fence was removed and we jointly hired some tree fallers to remove those old dangerous trees. Subsequently our whole backyard became very sunny. We were really happy about that as now we would be able to grow more things. However what was able to grow in this bed did not survive the new hot dry conditions.

I initially planted a lot of sedums, spurges and sempervivums to help stabilize the bed. They worked quite well and gave lots of texture and some colour and most importantly survived the challenging conditions.With the arrival of Archie, the plants took a huge beating as he raced up and down the bank chasing interlopers and vermin . Now Archie is our daughter's dog but he has lived most of his three years here. Right now he is back being a condo dog with her and he is not too happy about that. (Neither is his best friend, my husband, but that's another story!) Anyway, this spring I was thinking what could I plant that would fill this space, deter his little lordship and survive the hot dry conditions. My brainwave was to plant some squash seeds. I figured they would cascade down and cover up the empty spaces and maybe we would get a few squashes out of the deal too. We thought we'd just go for it and plant a bunch of different types of seeds.When it came time to thin them we just relocated some in the bank to fill in some empty spaces. 



 It did turn out to be a good plan but next time we do not need as many plants.The squash vines are traveling everywhere. (boy you can sure see how much things have dried out in a few months).

Cinderella pumpkin 

 
Spaghetti Squash   



Zucchini and a Pink Banana Jumbo

We have over planted and it is hard to see what vine or squash belongs to what plant. There are a couple of sugar pie pumpkins, two Cinderella pumpkins ,three zucchinis, two pink banana jumbos, a couple of straight eight cucumbers and I think a delicata and a butternut squash. Next year we will obviously space them out and reduce the number but honestly we thought it was a long shot on planting any squash there.

It is that time of year when you ask everyone you know if they would like a zucchini or two or more. Everyone knows someone who wants to get rid  share their abundance. We have been harvesting lots, but Brent did notice that all of a sudden we were zucchini bereft. Now why on earth would we would be worried about this all of a sudden ? Who knows but we were concerned! I read all about this plant, were the bees absent, where were the blossoms? I did not know there were male and female blossoms ( I thought they were self pollinators) and if it is too hot the plant will stop or reduce producing female blossoms and of course the vital role bees played.  It did appear that the few female blossoms we had, had not be pollinated. So I had to make sure love would be found in the squash patch Blossoms only last a morning so it is a brief one morning affair.

 Rolling up my jammie bottoms I sent out to do my match making one sunny morning. As I was... ahem... pollinating the ladies, some bees took exception with my interference in their business. Maybe they thought I was threatening their job security. I was bitten five times around my ankles! (they weren't bad bites more like strong warnings, back off lady!!) Anyways I hot footed out of the squash patch. My husband thought it was pretty funny. I still go out and check things out and help matters along but I am a little more circumspect and no more rolling up my pant legs. Good news, we are back in production.



 My friend Wendy made a delicious Cornmeal Zucchini Bread recently. So of course I had to make one too! The recipe can be found here. I love this recipe, it is so good! The cornbread is not too sweet so it will go with both sweet and savory foods. And it is a one bowl wonder. Yum!! Plus you use up two cups of grated zucchini-bonus! 



Keep Smiling Friends!

Chris 

16 comments:

  1. Your romance in the squash patch cracks me up! I never did have any luck growing zucchini when we lived in Kamloops. Now I know why. Love the hat! It looks like the perfect summer project - not so big you roast while knitting it. What about some Russian sage for that area? And what about a wee Westie puppy for your husband?

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    1. Well desperate times call for desperate measures! I have even more great respect for farmers , so many things to look after and plan for, Russian Sage is a brilliant idea! Bees love them and they are extremely drought tolerant. A puppy ?!?! Who knows? My daughter has been lobbying hard but then we'd have two dogs to wrangle :) I love that hat pattern, it's a great go to pattern. Hope you have a few cooler days too this week!

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    2. Oh the thought of you going round romancing the squashes with the bees chasing you is so funny!!!! You are definitely set for squashes though aren't you! How great is that and how good that you found something that loves the conditions and grows so well! I am a little envious! xx

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    3. Well Amy, I have learned you don't mess with the bees! They have no sense of humour! I still go check every morning to see if I can be of assistance and they come out zooming right for me. They need to chill out. Hope these squashes taste good!

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  2. Beautiful pictures of the beach at sunset! Wish I was there. I absolutely LOVE that knitted hat!!! I want it! I'd love to make it too, but my knitting skills leave a lot be be desired. Ho-hum. Not enough hours in the day! Your garden looks great. I'm going to print that cornbread recipe and give it a try! Thanks for sharing it. We are just absolutely loving it up here! It is so gorgeous. You were right. Can't wait until we are able to cross the border and come see the scenery a little more near to you. I've heard (and can see from your photos) that's it's beautiful up there too.

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    1. We both live in a beautiful area and your scenery looks a lot like this area. I think you are going to have a great time discovering many things in your corner of the world! You will love that cornbread but you are probably more of a cornbread expert than me. That hat only takes knits and purls, it looks much harder than it really is!

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  3. Well apparently you are much more of a gardener than I am, maybe it is the romance stuff I am missing.....but at least I did not get bit by bees. I think there actually might have been too much romance in my cucumber patch with all of those cut worms reproducing at the speed of sound. Everything looks wonderful, especially that bread. And by the way I have to say once again that your knitting skills are way, way better than mine.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  4. Ha!! Those bees are not too happy with me anymore. They need to readjust their attitude and relax...and do their job. Stop loafing in the blossoms and get moving! We will have to find a way to unromance your cut worms, so they can storm away and how to never see each other again. The bread is pretty tasty and super easy. I think you are far too modest, you could knit that hat in a jiff!

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  5. Oh, lucky, lucky you! This is my 4th year trying to grow squash and I think it will be the worst squash year yet. Ugh. I tried the straw bales but, unlike your experience, mine are not performing well at all. I chose to believe that the bales would be automatically conditioned if I left them out over the winter (according to one of the extension services - can't remember which one now) and so I didn't do any conditioning - lesson learned!

    Seeing my straw bale struggles on a recent post, Tammy at Casa Mariposa pointed me in your direction. I'll likely try again next year & hopefully have better results. btw - I've been looking at some of your older posts & you have a wonderful site! I'm a new knitter (only been knitting for about one year) & I just love it.

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    1. Hey Margaret! Thanks for popping in. Our squash is doing well this year but one of my friends isn't. It got eaten up and shrivelled up and died, and they have been growing squash for years. Sure hard to know sometimes, isn't it?!? The bales are still producing a lot. We did the conditioning as per book but truthfully I figured it was a bit of a crap shoot. They never did get super hot but something is working. Maybe over wintering them doesn't get the process jump started, again it is sure hard to know.Right on, you are a knitter too!! It sure is a great skill to learn and there is so many beautiful yarns and patterns to knit with. I get a little overwhelmed with what I want to do. Just like gardening, you meet lots of new people who happen to be knitters!!

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  6. I love your pumpkins !!! Mine are growing well too !!! (even the heat weather we had !!!) Your hat is beautiful ... well done !!! Have a lovely week !

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    1. Thank you GĂ©raldine! Glad to hear your pumpkins are surviving your hot weather. If they get a big drink of water they seem pretty tough. They sure wilt quickly though. It's fun watching them grow. The hat is a family fav so I'll prob end up knitting a few more!

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  7. I love everything about this post. :) But if your bees don't want you playing match maker, they need to get busy! I am squashless unless I head to the farmers market but do remember my mom forgetting about her squash until they were the size of baseball bats. As for camping, I am a non-camper! I much prefer a cozy hotel or resort. There are too many bears/lunatics in our woods.

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    1. Well to be honest I'm really liking that motel/hotel option. The lure of a sleep on hard surfaces has lost its lustre! Plus I'm a big fan of indoor plumbing and a nice hot soak in a tub!! We do find bat sized zukes in the patch , I swear they triple in size over night!! I have resorted to making zucchini relish , it's actually pretty good. Sometimes those bees are slackers, I find them resting in a squash blossom, maybe they are checking their emails or texting their buddies, hey here comes that big oaf, lets go swarm her and scare the shit out of her!! Head for the ankles!!

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  8. Great camping stories - that is what camping is all about. It makes you appreciate the comforts of home!

    Congratulations on the successful AI venture. I've never tried pollinating by hand and must admit it sounds a delicate and dicey business.

    When we used to grow zucchini, I would shred it and freeze it for winter use - zucchini bread, soup, etc. Of course when it thaws it's mostly water, but it made me feel virtuous and thrifty to have preserved it.

    Gorgeous hat! I wonder how it would look with different colours for the different sections....

    :)

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  9. Nothing feels better than a hot bath and your own bed after a camping trip. it feels so luxurious! I'Id always seem to find a rock in the middle of my back or hip and I would sleep in the most uncomfortable positions! Yes I am an accomplished AI'er of zucchinis. That will good on my resume! That's a super idea for the hat!!

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