Pictures

I've had tons of pictures to post on my blog but since we have dial-up at home, it takes forever! Well, I finally remembered to take the camera to work so that I can use the super-fast Internet at school!!

These are the lovely flowers that Dad gave me for Valentine's Day. He has always sent me a bouquet and has managed to always find a florist where ever I was living. It always makes my V-Day. This year he sent them to Matt's bank. I had been wondering where he would send them and he always surprises me!!!

Remember my longing for an elephant ear? Well at the last fair we went to this summer, this cart greeted us as we walked in. I was so happy, I started jumping up and down. There were about 6 carts with elephant ears at this fair. Of course, I got one and kinda shared it with Matt. I ate it slowly for the next two days, savoring my treat. Now we know which fair to go to next year when I NEED AN ELEPHANT EAR!!!!!

Our volunteer pumpkins, potatoes, and sunflowers (I planted the sunflowers). Towards the end of the summer, they were growing even more into the alley and Matt had to keep taking the feelers and pointing them towards the garage to keep the alley open. We had a lovely crop of pumpkins and a few potatoes.

Morels grow in our area. I had never heard of/eaten/hunted a morel until I moved here. They grow for a very short period of time in very specific areas and are considered a delicacy. These are some that Matt and my mother-in-law found.

They taste ok. I apparently don't have a taste for items considered delicacies. What a surprise!!

This is some of the sauce that we made with our tomatoes. We like trying different varieties but here is a list of our favorites:

Big Boy

Mortgage Lifter

Cherokee Purple (just because you can sing "Cherokee Purple" to the the tune of "Cherokee People" for the entire summer)

Any yellow tomato (just because they're pretty and different)

Mr. Stripey (the name alone makes this my favorite tomato)

Tomatoes to avoid like the plague:

Roman Candle: They have this tough core that you have to cut out and once you do that, most of your tomato is gone.

Zebra: once again, considered a delicacy and I totally dislike them. Even mixed in with other tomatoes, they taste disgusting.

We received our third seed catalog this year. We found Seed Savers, which is located near us in Iowa. They focus on heirloom/non-hybrid seeds with trying to preserve the older varieties. You could make a great argument that most seeds, even the heirlooms are technically hybrids since they were developed from a variety of other types, but this organization doesn't like the genetically modified hybrids, and wants to protect the naturally developed types. So we're going to order our seeds from them. Their prices were manageable and I like the idea of my money going to a not-for-profit dedicated to preserving plants, rather than to a corporation. And Seed Savers has a pancake breakfast in the spring. I'd like to see Walmart or Lowes do that!!!

Ok, I'm ready to garden.