Red, White & Blue Potatoes

The 4th of July marks my favorite of all holidays. Better'n Christmas (no cards, no guilt about presents, no big commercial hoopla). Better than New Year's because it too cold then. No, the Fourth of July, Independence Day, is just right. Hot weather, good food, fireworks. Oh, did I mention fireworks? What other holiday do you get to make a lot of noise and shoot rockets into the night air? And it's my friend, George's birthday. Plenty of things to celebrate.

As a kid I sold fireworks from the front porch of my parents' grocery store, making enough money to shoot off a few bangers myself, but mostly to squirrel away the profits toward some bit of technology or other.

Yesterday Josh and I dug the potato crop. You may recall the potatoes I planted this year were the Best Blooming Potato collection from Wood Prairie Farm. I planted the potatoes later than I like,  an entire month later, so they had a few potato bugs. But the plants bloomed pretty well and so on the 4th of July, the potato crop was ready to dig. We got some big, pound-sized potatoes but most were medium and small, just what I like. It seemed appropriate to have red, white and blue potatoes on the holiday.

 Here are a few of the potatoes in the gathering basket, along with the first picking of red-seeded Chinese long beans, which I pick anywhere from 8 inches long to 16 inches. There is a handful of purple royalty green beans, too, but like every year, those have a worm in the bean every now and then. And those beans have to be stringed. I'm going to pull those up and plant something else. But the 6 ft long row of Chinese long beans put out about 3 pounds of beans every 3-4 days, way more than we can use, so I'll start leaving them on the neighbor's doorsteps. Out of the 7 bean varieties I'm growing this year, Chinese long beans are far and away the best green bean variety. I cooked the beans, potatoes, shallots and onions together with some bacon and ham, just like my Mom used to do.

Josh took off today on a 2 day book tour across Missouri. He's visiting some of the characters in his book and delivering copies to the ones who made it on the cover. In Missouri Curiosities, Third Edition (Globe Pequot, 2010) he has once again divided the state into regions, then ferreted out all of the quirky roadside attractions, out of the way weird sculptures (and sculptors), unusual diners, strange water towers, bizarre museums, and a whole lot more. Did you know there's a Hair Museum in Independence, MO? How about the World's Largest Pecan, in Brunswick? Or the restaurant in Branson that advertised, "Pie ala mode, $250; Pie ala mode with ice cream, $3." (Really, it's true, I used to eat there).

Josh's book is full of his on the mark humor, and this, his third edition of Missouri Curiosities is the most up to date guide to day trips and car excursions anywhere in the state. Even if you don't live in or visit Missouri, it's a fun read. (Josh has won 3 national awards for his newspaper humor columns and with a name like Josh, you know he's full of good humor). If you are interested in your own copy of the book, contact him and he'll be glad to autograph it for you when you order.

Remember my writing a few weeks ago that Matthew from the Amish Country Store in Branson brought bees to reside on the farm this year some time back? Here's one of them, the happy Italian bee, hard at work gathering nectar from a drum-stick allium flower. And, no, the honey won't taste like onion. The blossoms of this variety are sweet scented and bloom over a several week period. The bee is obviously doing it's job and we certainly are having good pollination on everything this year. Happy 4th, 5th and everyday in July. Garden season is the best of all seasons!

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Bees Arrive at Long Creek Herb Farm

It's not that I don't have enough stories and photos to post more often, it's that I can't find enough waking hours in the day to do so. Therefore you have to endure these long posts I have. But it's spring, life is moving along at a rapid pace. My birthday is tomorrow (I'll be 39....ok, 49, I'm lieing, of course). The last week's garage sale, that got rained on, continued one more day this week. Whew, glad we got that over with. Furniture, oriental carpets, collectibles, 4 camera tripods, dishes, all went. It's what I asked for, for my birthday. Now...to shop for furniture.

Barbara is enjoying her Earth Boxes. People kept asking me if I had an opinion about Earth Boxes and I had to admit each time, I had no idea what an EB was. I ordered 2 for my mother-in-law, Barbara, for Mother's Day and now I am learning about Earth Boxes from her project. Before these 2 were even filled with soil, Barbara was planning her list of seed she wanted to try and I barely had the soil in the boxes before she had everything planted. I was tickled that she was excited! Parked on the deck on deck benches, they are the perfect height to tend, and her plants are growing rapidly. There will be more news as the summer goes along of Barbara's project, for now, she has basil and a few ripening strawberries, green beans and tomatoes are coming along, some chives, too.

The cherries are ready to be picked and that's the project for this evening. Adam and Josh put a net over the tree which only slows the birds and squirrels a tiny bit. Like it or not, we'll share with the wildlife, but hopefully pick enough for a pie or two and lots for the freezer.

The big event of the day was the arrival of Matthew with bees. Josh and I have kicked around the idea of bees for years but it takes some commitment to do bees justice. Already having goats, chickens, a few guineas, a business, a garden that produces more than we can eat, taking on bees always got put aside. Matthew, whose family owns the Amish Country Store in Branson, (they sell my books and Nail Fungus Soak) farms out his bee hives in various areas, then collects and sells the honey. Because we are mostly organic and have plenty for bees to graze on, he brought bees to live here for the season. Molly, our Jack Russell, immediately sensed the boxes had something mysterious in them and not knowing better, got a couple of stings and fled the area, leaving the project to Matthew. Pollination of everything should be outstanding this year. We have lots of wild bees as well as bumble bees, but having some docile Italian bees on the property will benefit the garden greatly and be fun to see how Matthew handles them.

Adam and I have been working on getting the garden up and going all month. With 5 inches of rain last week (much of it on garage sale weekend) and another inch or moisture this week, it's been a challenge to get things planted, mulched and happily growing. This is a view from the deck, of a little corner of the garden. And here's an interesting new dianthus I'm enjoying this year. I forget the name, but it is a constant inspiration for little bouquets for the breakfast table.

And has the flavor and fragrance to make some really good sorbets for summer evenings! Happy gardening.

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