The Garden Blog

I returned a week ago from another trip -- this one to Dallas, which I'm pleased to report is getting into the farm-to-table model in a big way. At the Fairmont, the chef is even putting in his own kitchen garden on one of the roof terraces (something I'll be posting some articles about soon).

Anyway, while I was away -- and, yes, I knew it was coming -- the Hokkaido watermelon, working its way from the west side of my community garden,  officially met up with the Italian melon (melone, in Italiano), working its way from the east side. The vines at least met and shook, well, vines. Here is a photo of their co-mingling. The Italian melon has the big broad leaves, in contrast to the watermelon's smaller leaves.  

Now, you may wonder why  I don't give a name to the Italian melon, especially when I've been very specific in naming the Hokkaido watermelon (and the fact that one sold for $6,700 in Japan -- did I mention I have not one, not two, but THREE currently growing? If anyone is interested in bidding on these puppies, let me know).

So, I'm away for a week -- at a family reunion up at Lake Tahoe (which was lovely, by the way, thank you for asking) -- and while I'm away the Hokkaido watermelon made its move in a big big way. I mean, it was starting to do its spreading its wings a bit before but now, well, take a look at this photo I took today (August 15). Yup. All those big beautiful green leaves and vines making their way from the wall in and around the olive trees and through the middle of the garden are the Hokkaido. If last year's watermelon was the Watermelon That Ate Cleveland, I think we can safely call this one the Watermelon That Ate Sapporo (in honor of the largest city on the Japanese island of Hokkaido). If want you a comparison with what it looked like when I first put it in the ground as a seedling (grown in my kitchen window from seeds Jeff got off the Internet after reading about one that sold for $6,700 in Japan last year), scroll down and take a look at the photos on the blog dated June 21 (you'll need to click on "read more" to see the second photo that shows the little baby vine).

The first photo on that same June 21 blog entry is the Surprise Garden -- more cute little seedlings, huh? Those cute little seedlings are now the mass of growth as tall as I am on the right in the above photo. In front is the spicy mustard, which has moved on from the greens stage to grow beautiful little yellow flowers that I'm guessing will become mustard seeds. If anyone has any knowledge on harvesting those to make actual mustard, please send them along!

One of the fun things about growing watermelons is playing the hide-and-seek game of finding the fruit as it grows. The little guys like to hide in and among those big leaves but I've found two to go along with the temperamental teenage one I've been blogging about in previous posts.

If I were to continue to use the teenage years metaphor from last week, I'd say the Hokkaido watermelon has entered an awkward phase -- not only is it not as perfectly round and pretty as it was last week (or the adorable little bauble it was the week before) but, is it me or is the darn thing actually mooning me?

That was if I was to continue that metaphor. I'll refrain from doing that. I will mention that the vine itself has taken off and is starting to wind its way around its half of the garden and there are lots of little yellow flowers so hopefully we'll have some more little Hokkaidos soon.

The rest of the garden is going great. Lots of tomatoes (see below for this week's harvest), lettuce, greens, basil, jalapenos and cucumbers making for some great meals. I've said it before and I'll say it again: You gotta love the summer. 

The capers that Tasha was nice enough to pluck, salt, ziplock and mail to me from Pantelleria made it into their first salad last night. The salad also included tomatoes (this week's harvest from the garden is shown left) and basil from my garden, plus onion and garlic and mozzarella cheese.

Because the capers were heavily salted (with sea salt from Trapani, Sicily, no less), I first rinsed them out thoroughly -- letting them soak and changing the water a few times over about a half hour period. Meanwhile, I chopped the onion, garlic, basil and mozzarella cheese and put them all in a bowl to marinate in balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil. Then I chopped the tomatoes and strained and patted them with a paper towel to get rid of the excess water. I put the tomatoes into a separate container and into the refrigerator, then added the capers to the marinating onion, garlic, basil and mozzarella and put them into the refrigerator as well.

When it was time to serve I added the tomatoes to the marinating mix for what was now a chopped tomato, onion, garlic, basil, caper, mozzarella salad.  Voila! or -- since this is really an Italian salad -- Ecco!

Remember that baby watermelon? If you'd like a refresher, just scroll down and look at the previous blog entry. This photo on the right was taken exactly one week later on July 22 (same time of the morning, too). So, what was a baby watermelon just a week ago moves into "teenage watermelon" territory. Now, this doesn't mean the watermelon is attending the prom or prone to outbursts (ha ha -- get it? -- okay, yes, I realize the anthropomorphizing of a watermelon is a little weird). Still, pretty amazing how much it grew in just one week, huh?

Also amazing is the growth of the Surprise Garden. If you scroll down and look at the blogs dated June 12 and 21, you' ll see what it looked like just a month ago and how wild it has grown since. We're still really enjoying the spicy mustard greens, which are still going nuts. If you look closely, you may be able to see that they're starting to grow seeds so I will have to look into how I might be able to turn those into actual mustard. We've also been enjoying the lettuces (oracle, mache) and the flowers, which are hopefully helping to keep our good friends the ladybugs in the garden.

Next up:  tales of the famous Pantelleria capers (mixed with sea salt from Trapani, Sicily, and mailed from Italy courtesy of a friend -- thank you, again, Tasha!) and how they taste added to a salad using my homegrown tomatoes and basil plus a little onion and fresh mozzarella and balsamic vinegar. Yum!