Cucumbers, CSA, and Other Random Thoughts

At the beginning of the warm weather, the girls and I planted some cucumber seeds in our backyard as an experiment to see what would happen. They sprouted fairly quickly, but then, I think with the cold May we had, sort of stopped doing anything. In the last two weeks, they have gotten out of control - the leaves are huge and robust, and a few days ago, we noticed lots of yellow flowers, which would seem to signal impending cucumbers!

However, while talking to a friend at work who is an avid gardener/farmer, he actually told me that there are "male flowers" and "female flowers" and that since the bees aren't so active right now, maybe I should manually pollinate the two so that I can get the cucumbers faster. Perhaps I should have remembered all this from middle school science, but really, I didn't.

Here is Emma helping me water the cucumber plants this afternoon:


Once she had watered the plants, she got the bright idea that she would douse herself with the hose. After I got over the shock of what she was doing, it was pretty funny. Alexa was not amused.


CSA update: I don't think I ever want to eat or see another Garlic Scape. When we received them in the bag on Week 1, I thought it was a sort of neat novelty. Week 2, not so much. Now on Week 3, and with garlic curls taking over my fridge, I am lost as to what to do. Perhaps my unsuspecting friends who are coming over this weekend will get their fill of dem scapes!


On another, more positive, note about CSA, yesterday evening was a CSA culinary delight. For dinner, I baked a Chard Pie, which included Eggs, Swiss Chard, Scapes, and Parsley - all from the CSA! Our side dish to this was Roasted Carrots and Turnips - also from the CSA. It was a vegetarian's fantasy and actually quite yummy.