This week's harvest

Now, this is better!

So, I can't grow onions.  These puny little things are the best that I've ever done.  What am I doing wrong?  Maybe they were too shaded by the enormous wall of Brussels Sprouts.  These little ones are enough encouragement for me to try one more time, next year, God willing.  Now, that sunflower... I know that the kernels aren't dry enough yet, but I figured that I'd try to let it dry indoors before the creatures eat them all.  I have one more enormous head yet to harvest, but the multi-branched, smaller flowered specimens are my offering to the animals.

My first spaghetti squash of the year... it seems a bit early, but it was the right color and had a nice thump, so I picked it.  There are so many more to come!  Then the potatoes!  These are the last from the dacha.  Such nice specimens.   I am keeping a few of the nicest of each kind to use for seed next year, if I can keep them well through the winter.  There is more squash every time I turn around, but our friends downstairs are helping me use them up: zucchini chocolate bread, zucchini blueberry birthday cake, zucchini pumpkin bread, ratatouille (minus the eggplant), zucchini smashed potatoes, zucchini tacos, zucchini latkes, zucchini hash... The tomatoes are trickling in, thankfully.  Oo!  There is just nothing like a perfectly ripe tomato, still warm from the sun.  And the eggs: I believe that the puffball, Ilka, is done being broody, thankfully, although I still haven't seen an egg from her yet; but at least the others are able to get to the nesting boxes without being pecked.

We had this kale in a delicious millet salad.

Peppers!  Corn!  Basil!  Tomatoes!  I love summer!

Bring on the tomatoes!

Check out others' harvests at Daphne's Dandelions.

In other garden news... on Sunday, while working at the dacha, Rob took the kids for a walk.  Once I finished my work, I started looking, looking, looking for them.  I even yelled their names, disturbing the much-needed peace.  Finally, a fellow gardener, whom I had already asked if she had seen my oh-so-conspicuous family, spotted them and called to me.  There was Rob, laden with produce, a Coke and some Sunkist packets.  "Where have you been?" asked I.

Years ago, we rented a plot in a different area of the same garden where we are now.  Across the road from us were some... well, at the time I guessed that they were Albanians, because I was consumed with Albania at the time.  For sure, I knew that they were eastern Europeans.  Well, I was close.  Today, Aïda, a sweet little Bosnian-American, saw our children walking by and came up to them, asking if they would play with her.  And before Rob knew what had happened, the children were playing hide-and-seek and he was the happy recipient of some serious eastern European hospitality and offers of more... if you know what I mean.

This all made me so happy and so sad at the same time.  The smell of the peppers we were given sent me back to Baba Lida's Crimean kitchen, where I was once put to serious work, chopping peppers, eggplant and onions for a delicious mix that was then canned up for winter.  I am happy remembering those times, but I am sad too.  I should have been in Baba Lida's Crimean kitchen every weekend helping her, learning from her.

-a sigh-

Maybe I'll get invited to Baba Aïsha's Bosnian kitchen...

As Rob came out of Dyed Fahat's garden, this is what he found: All the kids were relaxing on the swing, Mita was quickly sipping a Coke and G was slamming the Sunkist.  I am sure that they knew their secret pleasures were soon to end, thus the rapid consumption.  Ty's treat was foiled by that tricky straw.