Another Successful Garden

We have had another successful garden!  This summer was one of the few summers where we only went away for one week and so we could actually focus on our garden.  We don't have a lot of variety of what we are growing; we have picked what we really want to eat: carrots, lettuce, peppers, rhubarb, and lots of tomatoes.

 The carrots were all sorts of colors and were straight for once.  We also have so many types of tomatoes, to the point that we don't even know what kind they are.  We just know that they are delicious. 

We also have lots of lemons on our little tree-- so many, in fact, that we had to pick some off because the plant really couldn't handle all of the fruit.  We left 6 on the tree and they are developing nicely.  Our mini orange tree also had so many blossoms on it that we are also concerned about the amount of yield.  Currently, the oranges are about the size of one of the super bouncy balls that you can get for 25⍧ from the old-fashioned gumball machines.  We bought a new lime tree-- really, it is a twig-- and it has loved this hot, dry summer.  It has grown about 10 inches up and out since we received the bare-root stick in the mail.

We also had a bumper year of apples!  The tree finally produced so many apples that we didn't know what to do with them all.  Our neighbors were picking them too.  We made apple tarts, apple crisps, applesauce, and just ate them raw.  Delicious, tart, and juicy.  Whatever variety of fruit they are, they are excellent cooking apples.

The sad news is that our last surviving rhubarb plant is dying. I got only a few stalks off of it for one rhubarb crumble.  It sent its huge stalk of seeds up about mid-July and then slowly died.  We tried watering it more, adding more compost, putting some fertilizer around the base.  Nothing has done the trick.  It is rather distressing, since in previous years we have had some rhubarb that I was even able to make rhubarb vodka! 

The herbs are prolific again and the fig tree is recovering from the harsh winter of two years ago. It has figs-- they are tiny, but they are figs-- all over the limbs.  The tree itself isn't tall anymore; it is more like ground cover.  Hopefully it will continue to grow up versus out as the summer comes to an end.

Apples from Our Tree

Our apple tree is finally producing apples of an unknown variety.  Smallish, tart, and pink (if they stay on the tree long enough).  We picked about kilo of them last weekend. So far, I have made apple sauce and a delicious apple custard tart. The apples kept their shape and taste in the tart. 

my apple custard tart

It wasn't too custardy (because some slipped out of the crust during baking), but the crowd agreed that it was yummy and Will thought that the proportions of fruit-to-filling was spot on.  The custard may not have been so, ah, custardy as I had hoped because I didn't use single cream.  I used 2% milk and there just isn't enough fat in it.  Still, I was pleased with the outcome. 

It is really the first time that we have gotten this bounty from the tree.  Will's parents were exceptionally thrilled to see the amount of fruit, considering they are the ones that planted it. Once we pick the last apple, we definitely have to trim it back.  Our yard and our neighbor's yard are covered in fallen, rotting apples. 

In the meantime, I will make more apple sauce and our neighbor's kids will feed more apples to their horses.  

It's All Starting to Happen

 

We started to collect our tomatoes. Every year we plant, from seed, about 50 tomato plants. We nurture and care, water and weed them. We wait in high anticipation for the first ones to ripen--picking a few a bit too soon. This year, there has been plenty of rain followed by intense heat. The tomato plant have shot up and overtaken their cages; many are causing their supports to lean right over.

This morning, we harvested the ripest ones. It's time for lunch and on the menu: fresh, homegrown tomatoes. 

National Arboretum

 It being another gorgeous weekend, Will and I took Charlotte and Rebecca (a visiting French pastry student studying here for the summer) to the National Arboretum.





 We had a picnic in the herbal garden and wandered up to the Capitol Columns.

Theses columns supported the Capitol dome, but after about 1920, they were deemed unsafe and removed.  They were put at the Arboretum and make a fantastic wedding venue.  Stirling likes the mini reflecting pool best.   We then drove over and walked through the Asian gardens, where Stirling found a little pagoda all for her.

Berries!

This morning I went out into the garden and came back with a handful of berries.  I was even nice and saved some to share.  Amazing. 

Limes!

We finally decided that our lemon tree is actually a lime tree: one ripened without turning yellow, a sure sign. 

We picked it.  Cut it open. 

We then juiced it. 

We tasted it. It was pretty Limey and sour.  So, then, what does one do with lime juice? 

Make Rum Punch, of course!

Figs!

It's that time of year for figs-- actually it's a bit late. We usually are done with figs (and the rest of the garden) by mid-August. Everything is usually spent or burnt from the hot weather. 

This year seems to be different, with the wet, cool weather in June. We actually had a spring for once is DC. There has only been one week in July (when we were out of town) where the temperatures reached 100 for multiple days. The cooler temps in August (mid-80s), has meant slower developing fruits. 

Anyway, enough about the weather. The whole point of this post is show you my fig jam:

Three 4-oz wide-mouth jars of figs, brown sugar, and lemon juice are done. I'm sure ill be making more as there are about a thousand figs still on the branches. 

In fact I also roasted figs with Boursin goat cheese and prosciutto last night for dinner, along with chicken on our new grl! 

(The grill was a deal at our local hardware store. It is half times bigger than our old one and--the best part-- it was already assembled!). 

In actuality, it was a good way to end a great summer: freshly grown and made figs and a new grill. 

Returning to the Blog

You may have noticed that I haven't been blogging. Sorry about that-- I took an announced break. You didn't miss much.  The rest of the Barbados vacation was 

We went home to Kentucky to see family.  

 Including having a birthday for Kristie. 

We came back and had visitors

Had some of the rhubarb cordial I made

Ate a few home grown tomatoes

And gave an abandoned puppy on our doorstep a new home. 

This puppy was ridiculous cute, by the way, so we are proud of ourselves that we didn't end of keeping it. 

Now it's September and we are ready to roll into fall. 

Rhubarb Vodka

We have more rhubarb than we know what to do with and in an effort to not let it rot while we are away, I decided to try to make rhubarb vodka.  Two+ pounds of vodka, one cup+ sugar, and one and half bottles of vodka were poured into our glass container.  We have to leave it for a month and then strain out the rhubarb.  The timing should be perfect: we return from Barbados and one week later will have the Italian and her husband B as guests.  We should be able to enjoy this concoction by then-- and hopefully I didn't just waste all that rhubarb!  

Flowers in the Yard

In case you think that we only have fruits and vegetables in the garden, here is a post to dispell that thought.  We have tulips, peonies, irises, marigolds, and Easter lilies in yard-- though none of those are in bloom at the moment, having either finished already (in the case of the tulips, peonies, irises, and Easter lilies) or just starting to pop out (the marigolds).  

Currently in bloom are spectacular Calla Lilies.  There is a clump in the upper garden that are a brilliant yellow, with one flower rimmed in crimson red.  Even the leaves are beautiful, with the speckled white flecks. 

Calla Lilies

Crimson rimmed

As bright as a yellow finch

In the lower garden, we have a volunteer lettuce plant that has now gone to seed and flower-- delicate purple blossoms.  The roses are in their second blooming for the season and their perfume wafts through the air. 

Down by the path to the garage, the lavender is starting to bloom, the Sweet Williams are finishing, and the Tiger Lilies are all about to pop open.  We have balloon flowers opening and the sneezeweed starting to show.  The saliva is absolutely huge, attracting the butterflies again. And last, but not least, the honeysuckle is starting to really climb.

one of the opened Tiger Lilies

Balloon Flower

Sneezeweed

Saliva

climbing Honeysuckle

And further up the side of the house (and really all over the yard), the hostas are blooming.  It is the only time that I am actually happy we have them.   Most of the time I try to ignore them. They just aren't my favorite thing in the yard. 

For the moment, everything is green and gorgeous.  Hopefully the weather pattern will hold and we will have a glorious un-DC summer!  

The back yard