Kabocha Squash

We are trying a new squash this year.
This is a Japanese variety, very popular in Mexico.

I took some to Mexican friends, and they were delighted.
They had been looking for this squash, and it is not available locally.
I had never tasted it, and they fixed it while I was there.
They cut it into small cubes, skin on, and added water, cinnamon sticks, and lots of brown sugar.
It was delicious, but perhaps too sweet for me.

I couldn't wait to try it.
I cut it into four pieces.
(I don't have the strength to chop small.  It's very hard.)
Put it into the dutch oven with a bit of water.
Cook until tender.

My friends mashed theirs, skin and all.
I peeled off the skin before mashing.
It is super soft, so there is really no mashing, just toss with a fork.

I used half to make an amazing soup with candied ginger, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

The other half was served with butter, salt, pepper, and honey.

Delicious.

Grapes, Amish Paste Tomato, and Eden's Gem Melon

The first of the grapes are ripe.
Boy, are they delicious.
They have seeds, though.


We are staying a bit ahead of Late Blight, which is destroying all the tomato plants.
This is a new tomato to us, called Amish Paste.
It is an heirloom tomato.
Most of the tomatoes have split.
There is very little core, so there's not much waste.
(Although the chickens hope we would waste more.)

This pot of chopped tomatoes will be cooked down and strained to make a pint of sauce.

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The real treat today was the Eden's Gem melon.
It's an heirloom, green-fleshed muskmelon from 1881.

I can't remember the last time I ate a ripe green melon.
The ones in the stores look great, but are never ripe.

This tastes like a honeydew, but with the texture of cantaloupe.

We each enjoyed half as dessert tonight.
The rest of the dinner was chicken pot pie, fresh corn from the garden, and sliced Cherokee Purple tomato.
Excellent!

Watermelon

Petite Yellow Watermelon

How do you tell when a watermelon is ripe?

One clue may be size.
This is supposed to be the size for a small family.
It should fit in a refrigerator.
Looks ripe to me.

It weighs 20 pounds - gotta be a hungry small family!

The seeds do not look ripe. 

It's juicy, but the flavor has not fully developed.

The seeds are immature.

The chickens will love it.

Fortunately, there are more melons ripening.

Another sign that it's ripe is when the stem dries.
This stem was not dry.
We'll have to see if that becomes a better clue that it's ripe.

Pasta with Shrimp and Fresh Tomatoes

This is fresh tomato season.
Tonight is a tossed fresh tomato sauce for pasta.
I used one large Golden Queen tomato and one large Cherokee Purple.
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley and basil.
 

I asked D to get me a red onion from the onion patch.
This is what he brought.

Two beautiful Redwing onions!
(And a WallaWalla for later.)

 Added chopped red onion and shrimp and garlic.
A bit of olive oil and black pepper, and it's ready.

This is the kind of meal where I wish I had an extra stomach or two!

 

spider - black and yellow argiope

We found this large black and yellow spider in the weeds along the path behind the barn.

According to: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_and_yellow_argiope.htm

"The Black and Yellow Argiope is a common orb web spider. Orb web means it spins a web like a circle.

Female spiders are much larger than males, growing almost an inch and a half long. Males grow about 3/4 inch long. Both spiders have a cephalothorax (small front body section) with silver hairs on it. The abdomen (large back section) is egg-shaped with black and yellow coloring.

Legs of these spiders are black with red or yellow bands. Each leg has three claws on the end.

Black and Yellow Argiopes live in fields and gardens. They can be found on shrubs, tall plants, and flowers.

The web of this spider spirals out from the center and can be two feet across. The female builds the large web, and a male will build a smaller web on the outer part of her web. The male's web is a thick zig-zag of white silk."

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It was still there the next day, but the wrapped prey from yesterday is gone.

 

Raw Tomato Sauce

This is the first raw sauce of the summer.
Delicious!

 Linguini is tossed with butter and olive oil.

Sauce is two kinds of tomato, oil, garlic, basil, parsley.

This is a great summer meal - a cross between a pasta dinner and salad.

Costoluto Tomato

This Costoluto Tomato is an heirloom tomato of Italian ancestry.
It's a smallish tomato, with strong flavor.
The skin is slightly tough, compared to other heirlooms.

We've had very uneven rain this spring and summer.
That has led to some cracking and some blossom end rot.
This is the first summer in the last three years that we have been able to harvest some before late blight set in.  We're keeping fingers crossed, since we have used up all the sauces I canned in 2008.