Insect Oddities and Coming to the Same Place

An acquaintance-friend called me today, and we were talking about the "healthy happy hour" that she had hosted this week.  It was all about putting clean foods into your body and working toward a whole foods lifestyle - basically taking care of yourself and your family.  It wasn't preachy or judgmental.  It was really nice.  I learned a few things and tasted a couple things that I normally wouldn't have.  For those of you that are not aware, I am not a big sweets person.  Every once in a while, I like a little chocolate or a cookie. But mostly, for me, it will be fruit or yogurt - or even better - a giant salt lick.

We talked some about my garden, how I completely overextended myself, and the strange things I have observed.

1.)  I was sure that the squirrel and birds would eat all the strawberries - that was pretty much true.  Thankfully Jon constructed the mega cage of chicken wire and the last part of the season's berries were spared for us humans.
2.)  Nothing ate our tomatoes.  In previous seasons, we had to guard tomatoes with shiny curling ribbon, more large chicken wire nets, swinging pie pans, cayenne pepper sprays, all to no avail.  Birds and squirrel buffet the tomatoes were.  But not this season.  Perhaps they don't like heirloom yellow tomatoes or grape tomatoes.  By the way - the grape tomatoes are still going strong!  Also absent were the giant green horned worms that are scary to have to pick away and can devastate your tomato plants in a single day.  I am truly thankful that I did not have to deal with them.
3.)  Ants love beans.  They don't love corn, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, carrot fronds, chive tops or sweet potato leaves.  They do, however, love green bean leaves and Chinese long beans.  Most recently I observed 2 giant army ants perched at the top of each long bean.  They grow in sets of 2, and it was as if each ant was guarding a bean.  No seriously, 2 on every set of beans.  I had noticed a few sets that had turned brown and dried up, and they appeared to have some sort of eggs on them.  Perhaps ant eggs?  So why, beans and not tomatoes that are grown in the same bed?  And why long beans and not the green beans which had only the leaves cannibalized and the beans left intact?  CALLING ALL ENTOMOLOGISTS - Please explain!
4.)  Not discussed but disconcerting to me - the cantaloupes and watermelons grow to about 6", then split and rot.  What is wrong?

But circling back to the healthy happy hour, it was interesting to see how people end in the same place coming from completely different directions.  My friend Teena had her happy hour to promote the idea of needing to de-toxify or cleanse our bodies.  She talked about how processed food is full of toxins, food allergies are up, and it is all because of the way our food is prepped and processed for us.  So she was promoting eating whole foods, low glycemic carbs, and gluten free foods.  Her end goal was to be healthier and have more energy.  Well, I cannot give up my carbs - sorry Teena!  But I started our garden for several reasons - to teach the kids about how food gets on our table, to reduce the environmental (pollution) impact of the food we eat by growing it ourselves, to support the local economy by buying seedlings and seeds locally and use local resources to help them grow, and to be able to control what I put in my and my family's bodies.  In the end, the food that we produced encouraged me to cook and eat fresher, and I truly believe that eating more whole veggies made us healthier overall and gave us more energy.  It was just the pasta that dragged us back down.

Wow, this is a long entry for me.  The point is that I think (and hope) that everyone that is reading this has a goal that somewhat includes feeling better and being healthier.  It's pretty cool to me to learn why other people are growing gardens, eating differently.  There is always an interesting personal story that starts the whole thing.  On the other hand, perhaps you enjoy my cheesy puns and gardening whack-a-doodles.

Ciao baby!

OMG those damned mimosa thingies

So, it has been a couple weeks since I have actually set foot in the garden.  My faithful dad has been watering regularly since we have no rain for a while now.  I open the gate, and the first thing that greets me is a 2 ft wall of those wild, crazy mimosa looking ferny weed things.  I don't know if they are actually mimosa plants, but they look like them, and the grow like CRAZY!  Anyway, I had to rip them out just to be able to set foot in the garden.  Not a good sign.
I make my way immediately to the back to check on the grape tomatoes as I can see flashes of red back there.  I think I need a machete.  Whack, whack, pull, rip as I plod back to the tomatoes and melons.  Surprise - tons of old yellow tomatoes.  Still lots of grape tomatoes growing, and lo and behold, a fresh batch of long beans!  Too bad there is an ant the size of my pinky fingernail poised at the top of each and every bean.  No, really, there is an ant on each mature bean.  I totally didn't get it.  But I wanted the beans and not to be bit, so thus began a weird game of "flick the ant". Flick flick flick, snip snip snip.
Then more ripping and pulling of whatever those weed trees are to be able to see the melon patch.  2 melons growing.  :)
Clipped a few eggplants, banana peppers, and another large dose of sweet potato leaves.
Its nice to know that even though I've been ignoring you for a few weeks, sweet garden, that you still grow food along with those weeds.  Thank you.
Tonight for dinner - slow poached chicken with scallion oil and ginger with long beans cooked with fermented black beans and garlic and sweet potato leaves sauteed with ginger and sesame oil.  :)
And now it is finally raining outside.  Keep on growing, baby, 'cause we're still hungry!

I totally miss you!

So much travel and so much time.  I totally miss my garden.  I know that it is over run with weeds and overgrown eggplants and peppers, but there is nothing I can do when I am not home. (frowny face)  I go home tomorrow and will check the whole thing out.
In a couple weeks, I will start to clear for the fall garden.  Taking suggestions . . .

In the mean time, here is an image of nature's perfect snack.