Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Cantaloupe


Cantaloupe (also cantaloup, muskmelon, rockmelon or spanspek) refers to two varieties of Cucumis melo, which is a species in the family Cucurbitaceae, which includes nearly all melons and squashes. Cantaloupes range in size from 0.5 kg to 5.0 kg. Originally, cantaloupe referred only to the non-netted orange-fleshed melons of Europe; however, in more recent usage it has come to mean any orange-fleshed melon (C. melo). (From Wikipedia)

At the Falls Church City Farmer's Market a couple of months ago, we picked up a few vines on sale for $1 each. We didn't know how well, if at all, they'd do in the back of the house, but we thought we'd give it a try. A few weeks ago, I noticed a little green ball forming where one of the vine's flowers used to be. It grew, and grew, and grew into a nice cantaloupe. Each day it's been getting more yellow and closer towards ripeness. Today when I went back to water the plants in the back yard, I saw the cantaloupe was detached from the vine and a beautiful ripe color that one never sees on cantaloupe in the grocery store. I brought it inside and began to devour it. YUMMY!




Monday, August 9, 2010

You Say Tomato

We planted some herbs, peppers and tomatoes in front of our house. Yesterday we picked the first ripe tomato, which was lusciously delicious. Unfortunately, the rest of the tomatoes are very green, so it will be a while before we're in tomato bliss again. Here are some photos:




Over the weekend, Andreas went to Merrifield Garden Center to buy some salad and other greens, which he planted this weekend. The real purpose of his trip there, though, was to get some "green manure." While it sounds terrible, actually, it's not gross at all - it's simply a plant that binds nitrogen in a natural way and after it grows it gets folded under the dirt and will make for some great soil. This is a biodynamic garden technique. More on that later, as the seed were just planted this weekend.