Summer Garden July, 2010

Companion planting trials. Pumpkins with corn and cabbage with onions and monarda.



Things are progressing well in the Z Farm garden. I harvested lots of squash and beans. Made some zucchini bread, now that the weather has cooled off a little. Flowers are in bloom and tomatoes are finally ripening. It seems that every year we have lots of green tomatoes hanging on the vines and they just refuse to turn red until the calender says "August"! Well, they are worth the wait. The bean and melon plant Julian started as a kindergarten project, are growing out of their alotted space! We actually have some melons ripening. I discovered a pumpkin in the patch too. I tried some companion planting this year. I now have pumpkins growing among the corn stalks. I also planted a small raised bed with red cabbage and brussel sprouts. I read that cabbage likes onions and rosemary so I added those in between. I also planted monarda, to attract pollinators. The bees love it! So far, they all seem to be happy together. I am noticing some leaf damage on the cabbage but nothing really bad, just a few holes in the leaves. Since I will be shredding the red cabbage up for salads, it shouldn't make much difference.

Summer Road Trip 2010

I just completed a 10 day road trip with my daughter, Marie. We covered 9 states in 10 days. We started the trip by visiting the Rodale experimantal farm nearKutztown, PA. From there we traveled through Amish country, stopping at Burkholder's Fabrics in Denver, PA. What a great store, if you are a quilter! Many rooms of beautiful fabrics. We headed south, through the Blue Ridge Mountains and stayed at the Skyland Resort in the Shenandoah National Park. Definitely will return to this beautiful place. Despite the fact that the Northeast was experiencing the hottest temperatures on record, we took a room with no AC,or TV for that matter, only a ceiling fan, and were quite comfortable because we were up at the topof the mountain, at 3,680 feet! It was nice and cool and the views were breathtaking. From there we headed further south to Raleigh, NC to spend the night and then made our way down to Wilmington, NC to stay with our wonderful friends, Clair & Fred. What wonderful friends they are. We were treated to a Down Southern Boil cooked by daughters & the guys.

We enjoyed their company for 2 days and then headed to Winston-Salem and a ride through the Smoky Mountains, a visit to the Cherokee Museum and then on to Knoxville, TN to the AQS Quilt Show, where we saw some beautiful quilts and met Alex Anderson, in person. We enjoyed a nice conversation with her and her assistant.

We also just HAD to go up to the top of the Sunshere! (My idea, Marie was feeling a little squeemish) But we got an awesome view of the city.

From Knoxville, we headed over to

Frankfort, KY. Frankfort is actually the capitol of that state, not Lexington or Louisville! We stopped to do a little shopping and picture taking, and made it to the Woodford Reserve Distillery, just after they closed at 5:00 pm. Soooooo, we stayed overnight in Frankfort and got to the distillery in the morning, just as they opened.

What wonderful horse country it is over there!

After stocking up on gifts, we started to head back east,

and home. Since we hadn't reserved a place to stay that night, we decided to make it a driving day and set our goal on getting

to Gettysburg, PA before sunset! We made it, booked the last room in the Comfort Suites hotel and headed out for dinner, our last dinner together on the trip. We were up early in the moring and hit the road, stopping at the Amish Farmers Market on the way. We stocked up on fresh fruit, had the best chicken fillet sandwich EVER, and then headed home.

At the market, I saw the best gift for my soon to be born grandchild, an Amish made rocking horse! A little Amish boy was riding on it as we walked by and Marie and I stopped to watch him. A few minutes later, the boy was done playing, Marie was busy looking at a print at the ajacent shop, so I made the purchase. I put the rocking horse in the shopping cart and when Marie was done she turned around and saw it. She said "Thanks Mom" with tears in her eyes. A good hug made it the best ending of our trip ever! We arrived home safely after a few hours more of driving and New Jersey & New York traffic. It was the best trip we ever had together and I am so thankful that we did it! We will have the memories and pictures for a long while and we will be able to tell the baby that we all took the trip together!