Broccoli & Gratitude

A bit of a belated update here. We have so much to be grateful for this year. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with pies from our pumpkins; the end of the Poblanos: roasted, stuffed with cheese, and baked with cornbread; a freshly killed Tofurkey resting on a bed of our onions, potatoes, and rosemary; cases of persimmons; heirloom pink popcorn; and of course broccoli and cauliflower from the garden. We're on track to our 100th duck egg in the next couple of days. Our cover crop is growing, and we're mapping out next Spring's plantings already. Today I took down a seven foot tall Doug Fir and wrestled it through the front door and into our converted-wheelbarrow tree stand. We've even finished our card ahead of schedule this year. We pick it up tomorrow and plan to get it out over the weekend. It looks like we're in for a bit of rain starting Sunday. It will be a welcome change from last week's power-zapping windstorm into cold snap.

1...2...3...4...Guy!

Halfway through their third week of laying the ducks have had their first four egg day. Appropriately, this brings the total number of eggs they've lain to 40 so far. After counting the eggs, Estelle added her guy to the nest box this morning, hence the post title.

Eggs At Last...

The full moon and a supplemental light on a timer kicked our ladies into production over the weekend, 25 weeks from their birth. We've found two per day since finding a lone egg on Sunday morning, for a total of 7 so far. Due to the size and color of the eggs however, I think that more than two ducks are laying. The eggs have clean, hard shells and are rich in flavor. Their golden yolks reflect their nutritional value.

Tiburon Poblano Peppers

Last Friday was our final harvest of Tiburon Poblano peppers for this year. We sold a season total of 117 lbs from 60 plants, and we still have plenty for our personal use, neighbors and friends. They are sweet at the base and scorching hot starting about halfway up the pepper. As we pull out the plants to cover crop, we will string the stragglers onto ristras and hang them to dry. A dried Poblano pepper is referred to as an Ancho chili (from the Spanish word for "wide'). We use them in our recipes to remind us of hotter, drier times throughout the chilly, wet winter. It's hard to believe it's coming. We have a crystal clear 80 degrees here today.
The other pepper we sold this summer --yet to be mentioned on this blog-- is Italia. It is a sweet, frying pepper that gets 8-12 inches long when red and ripe. Essi sono magnifici!

I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come down for quite a while...

This is what we woke up to at 7 AM yesterday morning. When all was said and done, 11.41 inches were recorded on our rain gauge. Needless to say, I was out there until midnight in the rubber ducky suit cleaning culverts, diverting puddles and making sure our trees were solidly tied down. Over-saturated soil, high winds and baby trees aren't the best of friends. The ducks were out as well, and thoroughly enjoyed turning our lawn into a pond. It's always incredible to me how fast our land recovers from these incidents. Today was very peaceful with intermittent sprinkles and all sorts of interesting groundscores poking out of the earth: broken glass, a neon yellow golf ball, a .22 caliber bullet, and a strange, broken owl/raccoon pottery piece that I found in a storm drain.

Lavandula x intermedia "Provence"

I just potted these cuttings up out of plug trays into 4" pots yesterday afternoon. There are 244 in all. We will allow them to establish their roots in the pots before planting them out later this fall. 'Provence' is a French hybrid lavender, or Lavindin. According to Ritcher's Herbs, where we bought our plugs, it is a: Vigorous, long-stemmed variety in cultivation since the 1950s and still widely grown for fresh bouquets, lavender wands, and potpourri. Very fragrant, with a sweet floral scent. Ht. 1m/3ft. This is how it is grown in France.

Apple Peppers

These beauties are sweet over sweet. I was eating the culls for breakfast as I harvested them Friday morning for the HGP's CSA boxes. We sold them 53 lbs, and there's still loads of fruit on the plants.