Well, that’s it folks. The zucchini hosted the last worm it could stand. Looked pretty bad the last few days. I tried to save it again–found three or more worms in the stalk about 3 or 4 days ago. I dug them out with a sharp stick, shot the thing full of BT worm, gave it some shade…but it was too much. Must have been about the fifth or sixth time the stalk had been invaded. When I pulled up the plant, the inside was mostly hollowed out. I’m amazed the thing produced as long as it did. Just goes to show that if you work at it–cut off infected leaves and leaf stalks, keep it very well watered, scrape any eggs off that you can–and inject the stalk with BT worm killer periodicallly, you can have squash for months. I think the first infection happened in May on my plant–it’s July 23, 2008. I had 3 squash per week the entire time. This week I got one, and I was pretty sure it would be my last…

For more info on the squash borer, here’s the orginal article with pictures of the moth and eggs.

Next year, I think I’ll try that white, winter squash. I’m sure I’ll have the same problem, but I’ve always liked that squash…

7/17/08 Couple of writing items, both great news!

Wrong World has decided to perform Haunting Clues in a special Halloween issue! I’m pretty impressed with their work; it’s a classy site with top-notch presentation. The short stories are sold as a packaged DVD or on a per download basis. I’m especially impressed with the production of the introductions. Here’s one sample. There are excerpts of the stories out there as well.

Some pretty stunning thought and work.

I’ve also sold a new short story (Year of the Mountain Lion) to Aberrant Dreams! (I love that animation! It’s still by far my favorite out on the web.) The story won’t be available for some time yet (could be as long as a year!) but after it is published online, it will be a part of their year-end print antholgoy. I’m already hoping for a fantasy cover, something adventuresome or maybe whimsical…(no, I don’t have anything to do with the cover. I just like medieval covers depicting heroes or mysterious, magical scenes.) I’m really looking forward to the publication of this story. It’s a little different style for me; a lot less whimsy and more danger-filled adventure.

I hesitate to talk about this because stray cats can be so heartbreaking. We adopted one in the past and had a great two years with her before she disappeared without a trace. We had to capture her and her three kittens, take them all in and get them fixed, etc. It was…beyond challenging.

Lately there’s been another mom cat scurrying through our yard. We started the long process of trying to feed her because it was pretty obvious she wasn’t getting enough food. Within a week, her kitten completely disappeared. It’s a dangerous world out there for feral cats trying to survive on the leftover scraps of other pets. At any rate, we continued to feed the mom and have gotten her used to stopping in the yard to look for food. We’ve even gotten the three days worth of dewormer down her…a bit off schedule, but you don’t really get to schedule regular cats, never mind feral strays that may or may not pass through.

Here’s a picture–not a very good one. We’ve gotten closer to her than this picture. She came over near the garden to see what I was doing one morning and she sat and watched me for about an hour. She runs only about 3 yards away now when we come out with food–unless something spooks her. So we’ll see how the process goes. She may disappear without a trace. I know that trapping her is going to be very difficult. Cats are quite smart and they don’t like entering the trap. We never would have caught the other cat except her kittens went in the trap. We then used them to get her. She was mad at us for weeks over that trick…

Planning a possible trip to Spain next year. Thinking about going in Sept or Oct. Yeah, yeah, I’ve noticed the weak dollar. My plan is to cost average in. Buy some now (well, when the dollar pretends to be strong again) and then buy a little more Euros later and so on. Or maybe by then we’ll all be back on the gold standard and I should be buying bullion. But I digress.

What I want to know today is this:

Why is it that when looking for maps of Spain, I can find them on amazon UK–that ship from the US? These same maps aren’t available at Amazon US. If I were to order them from amazon UK, I’d pay international shipping rates, pay in Euros (converted) and then the map would come from Jersey. HUH?

I love gardening, I truly do. But there are days when I hate it. There are times when it seems that every bug in the county is in my garden and they brought their pet worms to play with. This morning, the garden was drippy. It’s not that we’ve had enough rain or anything–in fact, the rain completely missed us yesterday afternoon, so we’ve had less than half an inch in the last month. But it was humid enough that the plants were wet, drippy and hanging on the ground.

I couldn’t find any new cucumbers growing. None of the cantaloups were ripe. The tomato plants were mostly draped along the ground and I’m out of poles to tie them up off the ground. The plants are suffering from spider mites (again).

The cucumbers just had a huge infestation of aphids and what I think are white plant lice. I sprayed last evening, but I do it one individual leaf at a time so as not to get the insecticide all over myself and the rest of the garden. This morning everything is damp and drippy and I don’t want those leaves touching me.

I had to spray diluted milk all over everything because I’m afraid that I’ll get another mildew problem with the high humidity if I don’t. That made the garden even more drippy.

The tomato I went to pick this morning had been eaten out by a WORM. I found another one, not even started to ripen that has been attacked by worm’s brother.

I cut a zucchini off the plant and accidentally chopped a leaf off. Rats.

The rain barrel had about half a barrel from the rain we got two days ago. Emptying it is not usually that difficult, but today the hose got kinked. Then I couldn’t position the barrel right to get the water out properly. It was 75 degrees out when I stared, 80 before I was close to finishing. Hot. Sweaty. Drippy.

ARGH.

Around the Bend is now available over at www.AnthologyBuilder.com!!! I’ve created two different anthologies with this story in it–you can order the exact anthologies from their library or you can pick and choose your own stories. Check out the artwork on these two!!

I just love them both. The Dragon Wings cover art was done by Jacquelyne Drainville and the Escape cover art was done by Kevin Wasden. Both are just fabulous.

Here are links to the books along with cost and shipping information:

Dragon Wings
Escape

Actually it’s the first cantaloupe I’ve ever grown, period. And it was a success, if I do say so myself!

It’s a “little sweetie” that is smaller than your average cantaloupe–supposedly about the size of a softball. This one is considerably bigger than that and I’m not complaining. It was easy to grow in Texas (because all the bugs were on the zucchini and tomato plants, I think!). It took a long time to grow–this one has been in the ground since February/March. It was probably 4 feet long before the first fruit set. Then it took weeks and weeks to get big and start to ripen. I picked it pretty much by accident, which I read, is the right time. I was just looking at it and picked it up just a tad and it fell off in my hand! We tried it this morning and boy was it good. Very firm and very sweet. Success!

I hear the best way to eat them is to scoop out the seeds and fill the center with ice cream…so I wonder…chocolate ice cream or vanilla???

Let’s talk about Chocolate. I know you want to. Sure, it would be even better to EAT the stuff, but that’s essentially what we’ll be talking about anyway!

Have you noticed that grocery stores (including Wal-Mart) are starting to carry better chocolates? Instead of just low-end Hersey’s there’s the high-end Hersey bars. Even better, there’s Lindt chocolate and some very nice Ghiradeli bars. I didn’t like Ghirardelli all that much the first time I tried them years and years ago. I drank their cocoa because it was one of the few decent ones on the grocery shelves–easy to obtain. Several years ago the internet made it possible for me to order from anywhere and I’ve tried a number of cocoas:

Scharffen-Berger: This is a lovely cocoa, especially for cooking. Very rich, non-dutched, deep cocoa. My favorite recipe for this cocoa is: Chocolate Buttermilk cake with chocolate buttermilk icing. Be prepared to swoon.

Guittard - I believe they supply chocolate to See’s Candies (My all-time favorite store candies). They also have some dynamite chocolate bars for baking or making your own chocolate. They have single region chocolates and mixed. Quite a selection to choose from. Single region chocolates have really unique notes. Many have what I describe as “fruity” notes–a blackcherry or an undefinable fruitiness that just…melts into your sense.

They also sell a wonderful dutched cocoa that is very similar to the more expensive French and quite well-known Valrhona cocoa. I have a cup of Guittard cocoa almost every morning.

What are your favorite chocolates? Where do you get your chocolate fix?

Me, I usually order the cocoa in bulk from www.Chocosphere.com. I enjoy the Ghirardelli bars from my local grocery story. The Citris Sunset has tiny bits of orange scattered throughout a luscious dark-chocolate; the Toffee Interlude is perfect for just a bit of crunch and when you want that extra sweetness; And their Twilight Delight is a wonderful 72 percent creamy chocolate bar with a hint of fruitiness that is all about chocolate’s deep base flavor. All of these bars are just dynamite. Expensive too. But really, really satisfy that chocolate craving.

I like the Lindt bars too, but they’ve gone up in price recently, so I don’t buy them nearly as often. Hersey’s has some new “fine” chocolates out as well, but I haven’t tried them.

Here’s my favorite chocolate recipe book:  Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate: Alice Medrich, Deborah Jones (Photographer)

Today I made red chile sauce.  This is a very time-intensive work of art.  The recipe isn’t difficult, but it requires straining the soaked red chile through a vegetable mill (sometimes called a rice mill.)   This milling is done twice (sort of like first pressed olive oil and second press. )  So today I made a wonderful batch of the stuff.  This chile sauce is then used to slow cook meats or is added to beans and other dishes.  It has a wonderful flavor that cannot be duplicated, although many a restaurant cheats and thins the sauce with tomato sauce or uses dried chile powder to attempt the same sort of sauce.  Trust me, it isn’t the same.  This method is native to New Mexico, probably originating somewhere in Mexico with the indigenous Indians there.  They make a mole type sauce that is similar although chocolate or tomatoes and other ingredients (such as garlic, onions, other chile types) are usually added.

I pretty much make the sauce much like tomato sauce is made, only I don’t have to cook it down.  The chiles are rehydrated from a dried state, and so to get the right consistency it’s a matter of adding just the right amount of water.

Making the sauce is very messy because the chile stains pretty much everything it touches–instantly.  When I’m finished, everything goes straight outside to be hosed down.  This morning, I did just that. I was pretty pleased with myself. The dishes were clean and the lawn got some water. I walked around the corner of the house to rinse my hands a final time and to shut the hose off. When I came back around I saw my work sabotaged!!! Or maybe he was trying to help dry the dishes…The neighbor’s cat was licking my nice clean dishes. He looked up with a very innocent expression on his face when I demanded to know just what he thought he was doing. He then proceeded to stick his nose right inside one of the pans and slurp up the remaining water.

Sigh.

I came back inside, washed the dishes again, and began moving the containers to the freezer–only I set one on the door where it wasn’t secure.  The next time I opened the door, it slid out, smashed on the tile floor and spattered EVERYWHERE.   We’re talking have to paint some lower walls…throw out the rug that was there and someone is in serious need of a bath.

It took me the better part of an hour to clean the freezer, the doors, the walls and the floor.  I was already hot and sweaty so may as well make a day of it.

Anyway, I’ll be very happy to have the marinated pork or marinated beef in a few days.  It’s a wonderful dish.  I’m trying not to cry over the container of missing, splattered chile, but it’s hard.
Click on the photos for larger images.

Zucchini in Texas is a lot of work. We have these nasty little moths that look a lot like orange wasps. They lay their eggs (see above picture) on zucchini stalks. The little worm that hatches bites into the stems and begins to eat the plant from the inside out. Yeah–science fiction in the real world. This year I tried injecting the plant with BT worm killer. I had no real way of knowing it if was working or not.

Two weeks ago, I saw one of the parasites (moth) land on my zucchini. I managed to kill it. Had it already laid eggs? I had no way of knowing at the time because I didn’t know what the eggs looked like. I injected the stalks again as best I could and began to watch. Had I known what the eggs looked like I could have knocked them off. They aren’t that hard to remove because unlike a lot of other insect eggs, they aren’t very sticky, and they are actually pretty easy to see on most parts of the plant.

Today, I saw frass–this is basically worm poop that squirts out the entry holes when the worm invades. Sigh. I began cutting the stalks from the main stem. My hope was that I could cut the leaves/stems off before the worms worked their way to the main stalk. Once they are inside the thick, main stem, injecting BT worm killer is almost impossible–and so is killing the worms. Within a few weeks they will eat the stem out and the plant will die. I found one spot with worm poop where it looks like a worm made its way in. We’ll see, but I don’t have very high hopes. I also found several more eggs which I removed.

On the bright side, I do think the BT worm killer works. There were some leaves/stalks where the worm did a bit of damage–but then the damage stopped and there was no worm. The leaf continued to thrive. I cut a couple of these leaves off and inspected them pretty carefully.

The overall problem is larger of course. The moth lays so many eggs (I found about 10 tonight, about one per leaf) it’s impossible to find all the worms and kill them in time. The eggs are much harder to see near the soil or on the main stem.

At any rate, I did better this year than last. I have had zucchini now for about two months–at least 3 zucchini per week. I don’t expect the plant to live much longer, but at least the moths are infecting it rather than the cucumbers and cantaloupe. I’m afraid that if I didn’t have the zucchini, the moths would use the other cucurbits as a substitute! I’ll be planting early again next year. It seems to have helped that the plant was quite large by the time the moths began looking. (They started late April or early May and then continue throughout the summer in Texas.) I’ll also be vigilent about looking for those stupid eggs.

Here’s a picture of a moth–I didn’t take it because when I see them, I kill them if I can. I tried to make sure the credit for the photo showed up.

Update: I’ve had a lot of questions about cutting off leaves and or the leaf stems and whether it will kill the plant: Yes, you can cut some of them off. I have cut several away as time has gone by–the worms entered the stems of the leaves and left evidence. If they are close to the main plant stem, I definitely recommend cutting the whole leaf/stem away from the plant. If they are not, you can inject the BT worm killer into the hollow leaf stem. The BT worm killer does seem to work after about a day.

I also inject the bt worm killer into any infected parts of the main stem. It’s hard to do because the main stem is not hollow, so you kind of have to hunt out the part where the worm has eaten it away. At this point, my plant stem is large enough that it has withstood two or three worms–so if you see frash (worm poop!) don’t give up. Try the BT worm killer, try to follow the path of the worm with a thin, sharp object and kill it.

Summertime isn’t my favorite time for soup, but when you have tomatoes…you gotta use’m up! My neighbor actually made this little soup and brought some over. I’ve changed it here and there, but it’s a good summer soup with lots of veggies (you can put almost anything in here.)

2 cans chicken stock (4 cups)
2 cans water (4 cups)

Bring to almost a boil. Dip 5 to 7 tomatoes into the stock for about 5 minutes so that you can peel them. I do this using the soup stock so that the flavor and whatnot from the skins goes straight into the soup. When the tomato skins split, remove them from the stock using prongs. Set them in a bowl to cool.

Add three celery stocks (these do not have to be cut as you will remove them after cooking.) to the broth and simmer.

Dice two small zucchini and add to the broth, continuing to simmer.
Add 1 tsp thyme
Add 1/2 to 1 tsp finely diced fresh rosemary (This is a strong flavor so you might want to start with 1/2 tsp and go up from there if you like it.)

When the tomatoes are cooled, dice them carefully, saving as much juice for the stock as possible. Add the diced tomatoes to the stock.

Add 1 tablespoon sugar.

Optional: Dice in some cooked sausage. I used Wisconsin beef sausage (sliced about an ounce, grilled it, and then diced it.)

Simmer, covered for about an hour.

You can add meatballs, cooked beans (white northern, pinto or red) and other vegetables (onions, garlic, parsley). After the soup has simmered, remove the celery stalks and discard.

Prepare two cups of dried pasta by following the directions on the bag. Little shells, small elbow pasta or any small noodle will do.

Add the noodles right before eating.

It’s a simple soup, but a very nice tomato based soup. It is quite good, even on a hot summer day!!

June 10, 2008  –  I’m very excited to announce that Coyote Wild Magazine has just released my short story, Toil, Trouble and Rot . This story is a little different from my other two published short stories…okay, it’s a lot different. It’s sort of like an Agatha Christie in medieval fantasy…or maybe it’s Agatha Christie meets Amelia Peabody (Elizabeth Peter’s Egyptian series) in a different time zone!

It’s a free read–enjoy!

Note: There seems to be a small formatting problem when viewed under Internet Explorer 6 and 7. It only interferes with the top paragraph and should be fixed soon. Coyote Wild recently redesigned their website and something was lost in the translation. The front page and stories look just fine under Firefox.

Mocking birds, that is.  They love tomatoes.  I had to put up a net one year and then it was a battle to keep them from digging under it, squeezing through an opening, reaching their beaks through the net to get at the tomatoes…then there was me getting caught on the net, the tomato vines growing through it and getting broken off in the wind…endless battles.

For a couple of years, we had a great cat.  She was a dear thing; a stray that we adopted, and boy, she went after those birds.  I don’t think I lost but one tomato the two years we had her.  Sadly, she disappeared one year without a trace.  I’ve missed her for a lot of reasons, but I’m really missing her now that the tomatoes are coming in strong.   Some will say I’m completely crazy, but this year, I’m using camouflage.   Yes, you read that correctly.  Check out the picture:

If you click on the picture, you’ll get a larger one and in the right-hand bottom corner you’ll see a tomato just about to ripen with a big chunk taken out of it…

Basically, I found material that looks like twigs.  Well, not the beige part, but the rest of it.  As the tomatoes hint at turning, I go out and wrap the things.  Time consuming and tedious?  You bet your bottom.  Foolish?  Probably, but it seems to work fairly well. I have lost a green one or two because the birds still spot them and try them out. A bird also spied a bit of red in a gap one morning and pecked at a prized two pounder. Oooh, if I had caught that bird…!

My neighbor is having a lot of trouble with the birds this year too. Her husband built a cage out of netting. I think it’s working for her, but I actually have tomatoes in several areas of the garden so a cage would have to have a hallway and a ninety degree angle. Yeah, I kind of plant a little haphazard. But it works. The plants I put in later, away from the first set, tend to get the bugs later or not at all.

At any rate, I’m getting a very good batch of tomatoes this year. As always, it’s a lot of work. But I have high hopes for the tomato sauce I’ll be making this weekend. I know the salads we’ve been eating have been superb!

As you get older, you get told to eat oatmeal to lower your cholesterol and ease up on the salt. I’ve posted several low-salt recipes and recently I reinvented my chocolate chip cookie recipe to add more oatmeal to my diet (the doctor didn’t say how to eat oatmeal). After playing around with the recipe, it turns out I like these cookies even a bit more than my regular recipe!

Cream together:

1 cup margarine
3/4 cup regular sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

Add and stir well:

1 egg (high altitude needs two)

Add and stir:

1 cup flour (high altitude needs 1 tsp baking soda at this time and an extra two tablespoons of flour)

Add:

2 3/4 cups oatmeal (2.5 cups for for gooier cookies)

Stir and then add:

1 to 2 tsp vanilla (I like 2 tsp, which is unusual for cookies)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or more if you prefer)

Stir everything well and chill for two hours. Form one and a half inch balls and flatten with a fork on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes.

Whew.  That’s so healthy, I think I’ll go have myself a big fat BLT!!! 

The lilies have finished their delightful blooms!  On to the dalhias!  I have one dahlia so far.  It’s kind of a small lilac color.  Not the dinner plate I was expecting, but the plant is tall!

As for the tomatoes, I’m getting one or two a day now. I’ve planted tomatoes for years. Every year I try to put in a different variety. A lot of times, they don’t make it in the Texas heat so I have little to report. This year most of my trials made it (all but the cupid and the yellow). I am pleased to report that I have a new favorite to add to my list: Wisconsin 55. Boy is it good. My very favorite all-around is the Celebrity variety, but the Wisconsin is giving it a run for the top spot. I’ll be planting this one again. Beautiful bush, beautiful tomatoes, but best of all, the *taste*. Just magnificent.

The sugary hybrid grape has been pretty good, but I don’t think it is better than the Juliet. The Juliet has been a very good producer for me here in Texas. It requires little care, the spider mites aren’t unduly attracted to it and it produces all through the summer. The sugary hybrid is doing okay thus far, but did attract more bugs. The Juliet is very viney and can get out of control, but it produces better in the heat than anything I’ve ever grown. It’s also quite large for a grape tomato.

The Siberians have done pretty well too and so far I’ve loved the flavor. They will likely make the grade for next year and also for a winter tomato I think!!! They are just bigger than a golf ball and full of flavor!!

There will be more–I haven’t had an Opalka ripen yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

The previous post I covered my favorite money savers.  This one, I’ll cover those things that grow really well, but only sometimes save you money.  I’ll also cover a few things that didn’t work out so well, at least in Texas.

Onions:  Onions aren’t that expensive in the store, but they are so easy to grow that you can plant a row or two and easily break even on the investment.  For about 2 dollars you can grow thirty onion starters if you have the space.  If you grow green onions, you’ll save some money–they run about 50 cents a bundle in the grocery.  I always spare a corner for green onions and I get three or four bundles, more in a good year.  One or two rows of regular onions keeps me in onions for about 2 months.  Any more than that, and I don’t think I’d eat them fast enough.  Onions in Texas are the short day variety–which means they have a lot more “juice” so they will decay faster, even after being properly dried.

Fruit Trees - Most fruit trees have good years and bad years.  A lot of time the fruit freezes.  If you have a good year, you’ll probably more than make up for your investment…if you didn’t pay too much for the tree and you’ve already waited for it to get to the four-years-old mark.  Four years old is when most trees actually begin producing fruit.  My favorites are peaches and cherries.  Pretty easy to make back your money if you get a good year or two out of them.  Of course, you do have to spray them for bugs and to get the cherries, you will have to fight off the birds.  Those activities will add to the effort!   You also get most of your crop within about a two-three week period, which means you have to can them, give them away or eat them all! 

Apple Trees — probably easier to grow. Generally require pesticides once a year.  While apples are relatively cheap, there’s something to be said for picking your own fresh.  My favorite are golden delicious and black beauties…although I like red delicious and Gala too!

I think if you can grow citris of any kind, it might be worth it.  Personally, I’d like to grow lemon or limes, but I don’t think Texas has the right climate.  That, and I’m not sure where I’d put another tree.  We already have many an oak, two pecans that I planted (which don’t produce for 10 years) some Junipers and a couple of Asian fruit-producing trees.  I don’t know what the fruit is on those trees.  It is edible because I’ve tried it and I didn’t die (an Asian friend told me the Asian name and assured me the fruit was edible).  

If you can grow avocado, I can’t help but think they would be a good investment.  At 50 cents a piece in the store, it wouldn’t take long to make back your investment.  Of course the problem here is that avocado doesn’t grow anywhere that has freezing.

Things I wouldn’t bother to grow:

Celery:  It’s too hot here anyway.  All I got was leaves, and the thing seemed to need water twice a day.

Carrots:  Never tried them.  They aren’t that expensive in the store and they taste the same whether I grow them or the store sells them to me.

Asparagus: Too much water and who wants to wait 2 years?

Radishes:  Only if you really have a lot of space and love the things.  They are inexpensive, but they take up a lot of room and once you pick one, that’s it, it’s done.  You need several rows in order to get enough ready at the same time.

Strawberries:  I went back and forth on where to include this fruit. There is nothing yummier than fresh strawberries–but they take up a lot of room and you must have several plants.  Consider that about one or two fruits ripen at a time on a given plant, you multiply that out by how many you might want each day (or every few days.)  Ten plants was not enough.  I got about two berries every couple of days from 10 plants.   They are pretty hardy plants though, and their only real enemy is slugs.   I would think you could do pretty well with thirty to forty plants.  The season in Texas ranges from a few short weeks to probably twelve weeks when it stays cooler well into May.  (They can be covered during light freezes.)   You do use up the room permanently with strawberries; the best berries happen after the second year.  This means you get to water them all through the summer even when they aren’t producing. 

I read an article the other day on the $64 dollar tomato. I thought it was interesting, because I’ve probably spent 30 bucks growing a single tomato…I thought I’d do my own list of things that you can grow yourself that may save you money. Of course, if you’re like me, you’re always finding some new plant you have to try, you need more dirt, more mulch, some special new organic bug killer, etc. But I’ve found the following provide a decent return of eats!

Fruits:

All three of these are mighty expensive items to buy in the grocery store. The good news is that they are easy to grow. The plants are relatively inexpensive. Look to see which types do well in your area, especially with blueberries.

Blueberries - easy to care for. They basically require water. If your soil isn’t acidic enough, you might have to get some pellets and add to the soil once a year. Not hard at all and not expensive. If you have two bushes, you will more than reap the cost of the plant.  (Some blueberries require two bushes to pollinate properly.)

Raspberries - pretty easy, but can be invasive. They will grow wherever there is enough damp/water. You can grow early and late varieties and have them for a longer period.

Blackberries - pretty easy, but can be invasive and the thorned kind may reach out and grab you. I’ve also had some varieties that aren’t all that sweet so do your homework before putting these in.

Melons:

One plant can easily grow enough melons for a family–whether you’re talking pumpkins, honeydews, cantaloupe or watermelons. They all need plenty of water and plenty of space, but you get lots per plant, so you should be able to grow enough to recoup your costs, and save money compared to store costs.  You can cultivate favors by giving the extra away to the neighbors!

Cucumbers:

Same as melons–one plant should keep you in cucumbers for the season. I recommend growing at least two if you have the room because if one dies, you still have a good chance of enough cucumbers to eat and give away. Cucumbers run about 50 cents a piece in the store in Texas when they are in season so you only need to grow one or two to break even on the cost of the seeds. A couple more and you pay for the dirt or fertilizer (and I do recommend fertilizing cucumbers!)

Zuchini:

I don’t even like zuchini much, but as an investment, it has large returns if the plant makes it. One plant produces enough for the family and to give away (or sell). I grow the bush type so it doesn’t take up quite as much room as the vine type. I’ve lost a crop or two to cutworms, but when a plant makes it, I get about 3 to 6 zuchinis a week all summer long.

Tomatoes:

Tomatoes take a little more care. They get all kinds of bugs, beetles and spider mites. Just when you get rid of one kind, another bug takes its place. But they are well-worth growing. You’ll get several beauties from any single plant. You can grow early varieties, mid-season and late varieties–and they come in many sizes. I recommend a good ferilizer for these as well, so yes, you put a little more money into them, but the return is pretty good. You can freeze them, can them, give them away or make sauce and freeze the sauce. There are varieties that last quite long fresh also. And given the price in the stories (anywhere from abot 1.09 to 3.99 a pound in Texas) it’s not hard to earn back your initial costs. They are a popular item so grow enough to give away. Once people find out you have them, you will have no shortage of volunteers to take extra off your hands.

Beans:

Snap peas and snow peas: You only need about four handfuls to break even on these veggies. They are so expensive in the store, that three or four plants easily give you back your investment.  These do not require fertilizer, but watch for aphids and spider mites!

Most green beans are easy to grow and you get so many beans per plant, they are a good garden investment. You’ll need about five plants to have enough beans coming ripe at the same time so that you have enough for a meal.

Fruit Trees

Any kind of fruit tree usually pays for itself within a few years.  You may have to spray for bugs once a year or so, but peaches and cherries, if they make it through late freezes, easily pay for themselves.  Grow one or two of your favorite fruits and you get a shade tree and maybe some free eats!

I chose to grow pecans.  I won’t see any “fruits” for at least ten years. Most trees produce after they are about 4 years old.  The larger the tree, the more you pay, so hedge your bet: pick a strong young one and be prepared to wait!

 The good news is that once you get started, the costs do get better.  You only need to put in the raised bed once and each year you can add less dirt.  Of course, if you’re like me and you expand every year…

Today I picked my first Siberian tomato. It’s supposed to be the very earliest tomato–but I’ve already had a full-sized opener, an early girl and…a sugar grape! The Siberian is an heirloom tomato, meaning it hasn’t been crossed or improved. I didn’t know this when I bought the seeds. In the past when I’ve tried heirloom tomatoes I’ve been woefully disappointed. The brandywine I tried was a giant plant–as big as me with leaves as large as a potato plant–but the tomatoes were soft and few. Very few as in about 4 and they cracked very badly in the Houston heat.

The Siberian tomato is only slightly bigger than a golf ball–a nice red. And does it ever have a LOT of taste!!! It’s sweet right at first, but with plenty of acidic tomato flavor! Quite good. I’m very pleased with it. The plant has been disease resistant, hasn’t suffered too much in the heat and the bugs left it alone until the tomatoes started getting ripe. I’ve had a few of those beetles that get on the tomatoes and scrape the juice out. I’m trying to figure out what to do about those because I’ve only seen one or two, but they fly off before I can kill them.

The plant has very large leaves and was slow to grow. The seeds took so long to germinate, I thought they weren’t going to. I have a couple of the plants, so we’ll see how the overall yield goes. I definitely recommend them over a cherry tomato. They are twice the size and a lot more flavor. The plant is supposed to be quite cold tolerant, although I don’t think I’ll be testing that aspect here in Texas. It’s pretty much been 95 for two weeks now…

The turtle got a rather impromptu bath yesterday…I didn’t know he was under those plants, I swear!  He came barreling out of there, mad as a hornet…

Later in the day, he must have found his good humor because he found some dogfood that the grackles had dropped (grackles are a bird–they steal dogfood from neighborhood bins and then show up and eat in our yard because we have a birdbath.) 

Here he is–happy as…a turtle! 

As for those tomatoes I told you about–I’m going to upload a picture very soon so that you can check out the currant tomatoes! Working…

Here they are–are these not the tiniest tomatoes you’ve ever seen??? The large, normal-sized one is an “Opener.” I picked it a bit early because I didn’t want the birds or the turtle to get any ideas!

Turtle

That little guy is still around. I see him out at the garden, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening. Yesterday, I watched him motoring around the water dish (which we actually put out for the birds to bath and drink from). He seemed to be hunting for pill bugs (also known as sow bugs, rolly-pollies, and potato bugs). He gets around pretty quickly for a turtle–peddles fast! Our yard is…oh quarter acre maybe, and I’ve seen him at every end. I do suspect that he tried one of my grape tomatoes–I swear the breakage screamed turtle beak! He didn’t eat it though, so he must have been expecting a strawberry (some of which are probably missing from the two or three plants, but he’s welcome to them. I don’t get enough to really amount to anything.)

Writing or Reading

Fantasy Magazine (editor Sean Wallace, magazine pub’d by Prime Books) has started an interesting column–blog for a beer! Check it out. Basically they’re looking for input on a “topic of the week” and they’ll provide you with beer (or fudge sundae) money (10 bucks) if your wisdom is chosen. It’s an interesting idea and kinda neat–give people that like to comment a chance to be pulled from the comments into the frontline so to speak.

Fruits of the Garden

The first full-sized tomato is turning red!!! No really! It’s going to be one from the “Opener” plants. I’ve had two grape tomatoes turn, several currant tomatoes–do not plant currant tomato plants, folks. They take up a lot of room and so far, the tomatoes are not even the size of a dime…not that size is everything, but it’s rather odd eating fare. You put a handful in a salad, and you can’t spear them to eat them. Then when you do get them in your mouth, they kind of roll around your teeth like they’re trying to escape. You finally nab the suckers, and they explode with a rather hefty pop. Seriously, they are the weirdest tomatoes I’ve grown. There must be 40 million on the plant, but what am I going to do with them? I can’t exactly can these suckers.

The snap peas are about done. It was a decent year, but by no means a bumper crop. I never had enough to give any away. We had enough for salads and as a side dish several times, but now the heat is starting to wither the plants. The zucchini is going strong; we’ve eaten a few already. I have two Chinese cabbage still producing. I cut a few leaves here and there when I need cabbage–put some in with the zucchini and snap peas in the shrimp/veggies for tonight’s meal in fact. Pretty good stuff.

I should have a cucumber in a couple of days–small and kinda curled–looks a bit like a large pickle, even though it’s supposed to be an eating-type. If I get lucky it will be ready at the same time as the tomato.

No takers yet on the cantaloupe, but the plant is hanging in there and snaking around this and that. I’m sure it’ll take here in a bit.

The early raspberries are coming in. May not be a bumper crop, but they are enough to snack on while I’m out there pretending to pick weeds!

Just finished State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy. I really enjoyed it. I opted to do a review over at www.fantasybookspot.com - you can find the review here:

http://www.fantasybookspot.com/node/2656

Every year, I get a few visitors to the garden–usually a frog or three, definitely a cat or two and even an opossum. The opossum wasn’t welcome really. They have a tendency to take a bite out of the bottoms of tomatoes just to see what they taste like. Once they’ve tasted one or two, they aren’t a problem, but still. Have you seen those things up close? Worse, have you smelled them? These are not cute, stuffed toys, people. They are rats with longer fur. Yick. Ick, Blick.

Anyway, this year, we have a new friend in the garden. I don’t know whence it came, and I don’t know how long it will be staying. I don’t know if it needs water, but I put a bin of water out there anyway. I don’t know if it was a pet or a visitor from the wild. I suspect it is an escapee because it is not covered in disgusting mud or algae, but it did not answer when I asked. I left it a lettuce leaf or two, although if it finds it, I suspect that my cabbage may be missing a few leaves in the morning.

If anyone knows what kind it is, do write in and let me know!!!

Interesting post over at Dead Guy on what book buying will be like in 5 or 10 years. I love Janet’s posts, and I always find the topic of book returns by stores to be interesting. I never understood how publishers allowed returns to get so out of hand (For example: A bookstore is moving? They send everything back instead of paying to move it.) The basic problem is that publishers made it too easy to return anything. The booksellers have nothing to lose if they don’t push sales (even by such simple things as doing the marketing they sign up to do.) In the past, the only way a publisher could get a book to the public was through stores. That simply isn’t the case anymore and it’s high time the booksellers lost some of their leverage and had to start doing more to sell what they actually order. They would waste less fuel (in getting books there and then returning them), and other people’s money if they weren’t allowed to willy-nilly send anything and everything back.

Anyway, in the article Janet basically thinks that bookbuying is going the way of print-on-demand. You walk in, browse, and when you buy the book, it’s printed right there in the store. In the comments, someone argued that regular bookstores would never go away completely because there are collectors and die-hard book shoppers (I’m paraphrasing). Hmm.

My take? Things do change. I used to browse a bookstore almost every weekend. Now? I browse Amazon or other online bookstores, including Barnes and Noble (their website is somewhat faster a lot of the time.) I used to buy at least two to five books a month. Now? I go to the library once or twice a month and I buy almost exclusively online. For one, the selection is much larger and let’s face it: I don’t like every book I try. I’ve gotten pickier and I want to try authors for free. For two, the used book selection became very accessible–both by listing and by price about 7 years ago. So for several years, I did most of my purchases via Amazon used.

Right now I’m finding that used books are no longer nearly as accessible by price because of shipping charges. Until there is some way to combine used books and save on shipping, this route is fast becoming obsolete for me. It’s actually cheaper in many cases for me to find three or four new books on Amazon and eliminate shipping charges altogether using their promotions. I get more books in one drop. It takes me longer to shop, but I store up the books I read about that I want and then I go buy them all in one or two clicks.

There are times, of course, when buying used is still the cheapest option, and I will contiue to exercise such option when that is the case.

The point I’m making is that people younger than me are going to be even more inclined to shop online. They grew up with a computer in the household. They won’t care if it’s print-on-demand or shipped from a warehouse. Buying online will be a normal part of their lives and they may never even learn the fine art of browsing. For those desiring instant gratification (been there with books many a time–but often, the bookstore doesn’t have it anyway!) the bookstores will always serve a purpose. Bookstores are already changing–they are becoming places to socialize. This may or may not lead to a book purchase.

I agree that book buying is changing. I happen to think that it is going to be more influenced by online purchasing than changing bookstores. Bookstores will change, but they would have to change an awful lot to get me back in there. If they become more “interactive” in sales by adding video and sound, that’s not going to bring me in the store. To get me, the product would have to be accessible and cheaper than I can find online. Right now that isn’t the case and it doesn’t appear to be headed that way.

What are your thoughts? How do you buy most of your books now? Has that changed in the last 10 years?

Heliotrope is an online magazine put out by the fine folks at www.FantasyBookSpot.com; mostly spec fiction although in issue 3, they did do a crime story and I hear more crime is to come. This latest issue there is an excerpt from Sandra Ruttan’s latest book (crime fiction). I haven’t read any of the short stories, but you *must* go check out the cover of the latest issue. The artwork is totally awesome!!! It was done by artist, Teemu Vedenoja.

Helioptrope Issue 4

We stayed at a great little place in DC and it was in fact, the only place I found that was remotely affordable. 

I found 25 Quincy Place through the rental service www.Rentalo.com.  This place won’t be for everyone; it’s about 1/2 mile from the nearest metro station, which means quite a bit of walking if you aren’t used to it.  The nearest grocery story is a metro stop away–but another 1/2 mile walk from that metro to the store, so to get groceries, you have to be prepared for about 2 miles of walking total.  It’s doable if you’re in shape and don’t mind carrying the groceries.  Of course it would be even easier if you’re willing to pay for a cab to get yourself situated.   You can rent a car, of course, but I believe that only certain sized cars can be accommodated and there may be an extra charge for it; check the rental page for details/updates.  Not only that, parking a car in a lot of DC locations appeared to be next to impossible.

We loved this rental for several reasons; one of which was price. For four of us to stay in a hotel would have been $200 to 300 a night and we would have had to cancel the trip altogether.  We stayed at the Quincy place for around $150 a night for all four of us (not including tax and check the rules for minimum stay requirements.)   There are two bedrooms in the place so we had our privacy.  The master has its own bath; the other room has one three steps down the hall, and there’s a powder room on the first floor.  The neighborhood appears to be in the middle of renovation, but it was not noisy either during the day or at night.   The people renting the place were wonderful–they answered my questions and went above and beyond in a couple of cases. 

You’ll do a lot of walking in DC if you decide to use the metro to get around.  Again, it’s very doable if you don’t mind walking and are in shape for it.  Carry a water bottle–and an umbrella!

Eats

I spent a significant amount of time reading through the Washington Post recommended eating sections online.  Don’t bother; it was completely outdated and wrong for most of the restaurants we tried, especially where prices were concerned.  In our search for good restaurants, about all we did was add a lot of extra walking.   We should have eaten at Union Station more. Union Station was accessible, had lots of food choices and had some of the most reasonably priced food we saw.  I don’t usually recommend food courts, but honestly the price/quality was better than at least two of the sit-down restaurants that came highly recommended.  We got breakfast goodies from two of the bakeries at Union St, and there’s a place there that serves a full breakfast (dad recommends the french-toast). In addition, I highly recommend Great Wraps for sandwich type goods and Burrito Brothers for their wonderful selection of very large and reasonably priced burritos!

Other than Union Staion, I recommend a stop somewhere in Chinatown.  We ate at Full Kee (509 H St. NW, Washington, DC) and the food was great.  The prices were around $10 to 12 dollars per entree, but we generally ordered three for the four of us and had the perfect amount of food.  Full Kee served hot tea with the meal, a tradition that I love.  Since no one else in my family drinks hot tea, I got the whole pot!

There were lots of other places in the Chinatown area; many of them looked very good and prices in this area seemed to have a wide-range to cover all budgets.

That about sums up the DC trip.  All in all we had a decent time, but I don’t think I’ll need to go back anytime soon. I felt we saw everything we needed to and it’s always good to be back home!