Harvest Season 2015

Harvest Time and everything is coming up RED. It's tomato time in the office garden. And other things.

Last year, the zucchini plants were home to a toad. This year, I found that the garden was home to ... older things.

Little did I realize when I went to harvest the tomatoes that I was actually a fossil hunter as well.

I give myself about 20-30 minutes every other morning or so, OR as fast as I can fill up a bucket or two.

This is what the crop looked like this morning spread out to air ripen and for people to take home. (Some of the larger tomatoes were from yesterday's bucket. And can you spot the dino?)

Yesterday it was: 1 person, 1 pail, 2 spiders, 2 crates, 30 minutes in the office garden for a tableful abudanza of veggies. 1 zucchini=5lbs

 Zucchinis to scale*

 Cucumbers to scale

* I made a LOT of zucchini baked treats for the Box Office kids this summer.
They never did believe me that there was zucchini in the chocolate cakes.

Earlier this summer, we had kale and lettuce, not to mention herbs,

 which we used for garnishes, kale chips, salads, etc.

We've also had beans, peppers, egg plants, and squash.

I would have picked more that day, but I was in a dress, it was hotter than blazes, and those beans STICK to you if you aren't watching. (Harvesting in a Festival dress = not a good idea.)

 There are also pots of things scattered around offices and porches.

FORESTS of Fennel

Plus the wild stuff.

What do you do when someone hands you a cup full of wild backyard raspberries? You make mini lemon raspberry muffins to share.

Pardon me -- it's time for dinner: A BLT with an office grown tomato OR (call me Mistress of the Obvious, why didn't I think of this earlier this summer?) an adult sized, dinner sized Cucumber Sandwich.

Note: Too bad there were no pumpkins planted this year.These were spotted back in 2013.

 

 Outside the HR office. No word on whether there was a Carve your Complaint into this Pumpkin contest.

~photos by iTouch

Random Musings: Weekend Wrap up

 

 Caramoor's Office Garden: aka Flowering Fields of Fennel?

Scene of much dirt therapy, weeding mayhem, squash scratches, and so many cucumbers ...

Given that I was notoriously anti-outside, anti-sweating, anti-getting dirty, anti-bugs, and anti-weeding as a child, the fact that I'm the one out there playing the dirt/mud, weeding, talking to the bugs, and picking the veggies this year for the office? The irony is not lost on me.

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I came home on Friday with two bags of veggies from the Caramoor office garden semi-daily harvest designated for the neighbors and friends, and it seemed one bag was oozing. Reason 150.85b why I don't like tomatoes. I think they are trying to kill me. Those sneaky buggers.  All innocuously healthy looking on one side. Beady eyes and oozing wound-y mouth on the other saying: We are going to killlllll you.

Granted, it is a derpy face saying WE ARE GOING TO KILLL YOU, but I still think the tomato is out to get me.

Read: I don't particularly like tomatoes. On a scale of chocolate (love) to bananas (loathe), the tomatoes are closer to bananas, though I will eat them on BLTs and as sauce/ketchup, gazpacho, and soup. I'm weird. Get used to it.

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If all advertising for eggs was as cute as this roadside stand, I would buy more eggs. The lady offered to go get them "fresh out of the coop" for $6 - but I know what "fresh out of the coop" looks/feels like. I'd rather just look at the cute sign.

Spotted somewhere in Fairfield County, CT

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It was nice to hang with my friend Barli on Saturday, running around parts of CT exploring estate, tag, and yard-sales, but then she decided to park near Campo Beach in Westport and check an app to find our next destination. This was the closest to the beach I have been in almost a year. It took all my will power not to dash out of the car and into the surf. There was free wi-fi at the beach ("Yes. It is Westport, after all!"), so yay for wi-fi distraction or the fine WASPy folks of Westport would have seen a scarey sight.

So close and yet so far.

I'm still kicking myself that I didn't buy this at an estate sale so I could totally rip it off. "Take a picture, it last longer" doesn't work when you are trying to replicate a pattern.

WHOOOO's a wise one? Not me!

This flag was my BEST PURCHASE OF THE DAY! Totally appropriate as it was Doctor Who premiere day. My Attic is turning into an Anglophile/beach/shabby chic mecca. Would it be inappropriate to use the Union Jack as a throw blanket, and/or hang it out on my fire escape on July 4th?

Keep Calm and Take a Nap!

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Today was more of a traditional old-school Sunday. Sleep in, my date with Charles Osgood and the "church" of CBS Sunday Morning, brunch with my friend Susan-who was driving through town, a shop, the Sunday papers, chores, phone/Skype calls with friends and family, and catching up with my correspondence. (Almost all the elements of a traditional religious Sunday - minus church and a nap, but .... it's better than when I was working.)

Yes, Virginia, people still write and send old-fashioned letters.

~ all photos iTouch