That's as far as I got when I dug this beauty! I didn't plant potatoes this year but I had enough little buds in the ground from previous years that the plants grew anyway. So I thought I'd see just what I had and I found this 7" behemoth first dig! We'll be enjoying it for dinner today!
Mr. A is taking a well deserved nap after our morning Samba practice. We really overdid it this time...double our usual 45 minute practice! I am teaching him (and reminding myself) the basic steps of this fun dance...not like you see it on DWTS, but as a ballroom dance. We, or I should say, I want to be able to do this dance at the big gala coming mid-Sept at the Rogue Valley Country Club...black tie, formal gown, fancy orchestra lead by the maestro of the Eugene Symphony...with the "cream of Medford society" in attendance...Do let's!
Anyway, one thing just led to another and before we knew it the time had flown by. We now have at least seven steps in our repertoire which should let us dance for 3 minutes and not bore ourselves silly. In time (if we survive this practice session), we'll add a couple more steps. You have to hand it to someone who is willing to learn Samba at age 79! Of course, he did manage to avoid learning it for 10 years! Now events have caught up with him! I always say to him when we're in the midst of learning a new dance, "One day, you'll be glad you learned this dance!" So far, that's proven to be the case.
Future practice sessions will involve a timer so we won't go so long!
I'm pooped too! Time to put my feet up and watch an old movie!
The first week of September is proving to be a cool one here in the Rogue Valley, so I'm taking advantage of that by running the oven at 275 degrees for a few hours each day to roast a tray of tomatoes. I use parchment paper to keep cleanup easy and lots and lots of olive oil. I also use dry salad dressing seasoning sprinkled over them.
They come out of the oven smelling wonderful. I just let them cool and then freeze them in plastic bags for future use in stews and sauces. The intense flavor really boosts a basic tomato sauce and adds so much to a crock pot meal. They're also great spread in sandwiches.
I mentioned in a previous posting that I had too many succulents to shoehorn into the mini greenhouse so I have brought in several to hang out all winter on my antique marble-topped sideboard. I found it at a restaurant in Soquel and begged them to sell it to me. I'll probably rotate these plants so they get enough sun in the winter from this southeast facing window. I use a liquid fertilizer called "F-1" to encourage them through the bleak months. Last year the Christmas Cactus, on the far right in the stand, bloomed at Christmas and into January. It started life as a little 4" pot from Trader Joe's a couple of years ago.
It's that time of year again...when I know that I have too many tender plants and too little space in the greenhouse for all of them. Unfortunately, that means committing "horticide." Some just have to go! You'd think I'd figure this out, but no! I buy more plants and pot up more succulents every year. Things that I just have to have to complete my collection.
Here are a few of the survivors (for now). I do cut back stuff and put more plants into one pot to take up less space. But there are always a few new ones that I have to squeeze into my 4' x 6' greenhouse. Not to mention the geraniums that I have to kill off since they are way too big to winter over. I keep "starts" of each for next year. And of course there's the lemon bush that takes up most of the floor space on one entire side of the greenhouse or greencloset, as I call it. The good thing is that it forces me to prioritize, kinda,sorta.
This year I moved some of the larger succulents indoor to my only southeast facing window. More on that later.
