Living Waterside

I’m finally back Living Waterside and it is time for some garden TLC. While my sweetie has been “pre” tending to the garden, it needed its Momma’s care and harvesting skills. Having been gone three weeks, the garden needed a lot of maintenance. Today’s harvest included:

• 25 tomatoes, to add to the 17 that were picked pre-Irene
• 4 large, 3 medium, and a handful of baby sized round potatoes
• 6 carrots – 2 that are store sized and 4 that are baby carrot sized
• 2 spaghetti squash (I finally figured out what they were…thought they might have been oval pumpkins)
• 7 mosquito bites (suckers didn’t get blown to Canada with the hurricane after all)
• And too many more cucumbers…I’ve lost count

Needless to say, we will be having potatoes for dinner tonight and hash browns for breakfast this weekend and I will be learning to can spaghetti sauce and salsa for my non-working Labor Day weekend.

One thing I don’t understand is why the potatoes don’t look anything like the ones in the store. I get that I’m not in Idaho so I can’t grow Idaho spuds, but these look more like rejects from the Chernobyl nuclear facility garden. They may be close to oval shaped, but once you count all the little protrusions, they are much more like the Elephant Man’s face (sorry for that visual). I’m guessing my potatoes are the ones that become industrial hash browns or maybe a waffle fry or two. Or they make the potato remnants that become Pringles potato chips.

Any why is everything dirty? I understand they grow in dirt, but when you see the shiny produce in the local grocery store, or even in the local farmer’s market, it’s clean. As soon as I started scrubbing the potatoes and carrots, I inadvertently peeled off the skins (thus why we will be eating them tonight). I’ve been known to be called thin skinned, but this is ridiculous.

So happy I splurged for my day of beauty today – my mani/pedi is dirt filled and the seven mosquito bites are looming large on my nicely massaged and oiled legs. May as well hang a neon sign on my knees that says “sweet blood” to attract more of the damn things.

Looking forward to sauce and salsa day tomorrow. Although, I’m a bit intimidated that the recipe calls for 25 lbs of tomatoes that have to be peeled and squished and boiled and canned. It’s going to suck to have to put all the tomatoes in a bag and hang the bag around my neck and get on the scale in the morning with and without the bag to see how many pounds I have.