Humpty and Dumpty
March 19, 2011 Posted by: ERIN
I'll let you decide who's who...
Moment of Truth
March 16, 2011 Posted by: ERIN
The vegetable garden has been a bit of a disappointment this year. Actually, that's not enitrely true. The garden was awesome from about September through January. Plants were hearty and green, and we harvested beautiful arugula, broccoli, cucumbers, radishes, green beans, and hot peppers.
Then in January, forces began conspiring against the garden. First, there were the ravaging winds that beat everything down and stripped away much of the healthy greenness, especially for the tomatoes. We were still able to get a decent harvest from the tomatoes and bell peppers, but sadly not what it could have been. Second, a drought that continues through today began. To help conserve our water suppy, I've had to seriously cut back on the amount of watering I do. Obviously, not great for already wind-stressed plants. And third, I had morning sickness. Not going to get into the details, but let's just say it left me less than inspired to go out and dig in the dirt.
But despite those evil forces, a few things have persevered. There are green onions, strawberries, some Swiss chard, and a varity of herbs that are still hanging in there. And my two sickly-looking watermelon plants managed to produce one melon each! However, for anyone who has ever grown watermelons, you know that the tricky part is knowing when a melon is ripe. If you have a whole field full of them, you can just chop one open every so often to see how thy're coming along, but when you only have two watermelons, each is precious. I can tell you from past experience, slicing into a prized melon and finding it completely upripe (completely white throughout) is totally demoralizing.
So I've been babying my watermelons, checking for all the tell-tale signs of ripeness ... peeking at their undersides for a creamy golden patch (mine were green all over), gently thumping them for that distinctive ripe sound (difficult to distinguish if you don't really know what you're listening for), and carefully lifting them to see if they "feel heavier than they look". Finally, when the stem on the larger of the two started to brown, I decided to bite the bullet and pick it. But I was still so afraid of disappointment, I left it in the fridge for 3 days.
Then last night I finally worked up the courage to slice it open. Tom was the official photographer.
Here I am nervously thumping the melon one final time. Sounds ripe? Right??
Here goes!
Ooooooo ... is that a glimmer of color I spy?
It is! It's red!! Hooray!
Success. Sweet, succulent, drip-down-your-chin success.
