Wednesday, July 6, 2011

lots of stuff in the garden

Well, some of the things growing in the garden are pretty much a known entity ... some, not so much. I have NO clue as to what some of the squash-like things in the garden are. I can tell you I planted pumpkins and birdhouse making type gourds but some sprouted on their own and some look like butternut squash!!! I didn't plant that!! Or could it be cross pollination???
Tomatoes are looking promising, we eat a few of the cherry variety once a day and I am already starting to look at cucumbers with an evil eye. I really have no idea of what else to do with it. We have salads and snacks but beyond that I am offloading on the neighbors!! Our friend and neighbor Gay got this little snack form us yesterday:
TJs multigrain crackers with a dab of cream cheese and a slice of cucumber, topped with sea salt, crushed black pepper and spanish olive oil. We added marigold and nasturtium petals (edible) and chamomile flowers and mint leaves for garnish


Here is the rest of the forest hum ... garden I mean:

planted by the birds
even surviving and thriving in a tiny crack between the pavers ...
ripening tomatoes
cucumber mess
the anthracnose hasn't killed the plants but some sure make funky looking fruit!

zucchini close to dropping its bloom
And now, for the rest of cucurbitaceae ... I can tell what some are but others. I am at a loss really.

pumpkin 
another pumkin

yet another pumpkin 
ok, what the hell is this??? It was supposed to be pumpkin or "ornamental large bottle gourd" to make a birdhouse. It totally looks like a butternut squash to me!
ok, so I will believe that this could be a birdhouse kinda gourd but again, it looks nothing like what the seed packet promised ...
more of those gourds
There are a LOT of those in the garden. I wonder though ... are there truly inedible gourds out there? What happens if you decided to make a soup out of the ornamental gourds really? Do they taste terrible? are they poisonous? who decided which ones should be ornamental and which should be edible? Is it based on the amount of flesh they make? Are they bitter, sour, disgusting?

Anyone know?????

2 comments:

  1. j'ai déjà cuisiné la butternut et c'est un délice ! je l'avais coupée en deux genre un couvercle qu'on enlève, creusé le milieu, mis la chair coupée en tout petits bouts, des légumes, et un verre de riz, on remet le couvercle, on enferme dans du papier alu et au four je ne sais plus combien de temps... je te retrouve la recette sur marmiton si tu veux, c'était vraiment excellent !

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  2. Ah oui c'est super bon, c'est clair que j'en fais a toutes les sauces ici en automne aussi mais a j'ai un doute ... c'est vraiment une butternut ou un croisement?? On verra en automne :)

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