Monday 18-06-2018 – It's National Splurge Day – How Fun is That!

I had to ‘squee’ a couple of times looking at today’s pics! The ‘hebby cweem’ was one of them!

Another screaming hot day here, makes me not want to do a darned thing. I think I have some onions ready in the garden and may go pluck a few for a salad later. My herbs are growing like gangbusters, and I may have to harvest some sweet basil and dry it so it doesn’t get too leggy. Pinching it back seems to help it from flowering too soon too.

They are side dressing our corn today–Mr. KZ has been on pins and needles about this since we have had so much rain and it’s been too wet to get into the fields to get this job done. Hopefully, it’s dry enough and they don’t cut big ruts out there or get a piece of equipment buried in a wet spot.

Off to make the bed and start some laundry!

I’m not a farmer except for my balcony herbs and tomatoes and a friend’s allotment, which I tend when he is out of town, but yes, basil has to be cut back very often when it is hot and especially as hot and humid as it is here now. There is a gentle misty rain, harder at times, as if the sky and earth were sweating, and everything is a brilliant green. Pesto is easy to make and freeze. I use walnuts, not pine nuts, as the latter are very expensive and increase the cost of the item exponentially.

It was originally made from pine nuts as they were native to and common in those regions of southeastern France and northwestern Italy along the Mediterranean coast. Small farmers in the area couldn’t and wouldn’t have sprung for such an expensive imported ingredient.

Basil can also be frozen in small cubes (such as using ice cube makers) but it will be soft and not attractive in a salad; fine for soups, stews and pasta sauces. It can be dried but loses much of its nutrition and flavour.

Great idea on the pesto..maybe I’ll make some!

Side dressing the corn means that they come in with big fertilizer spreaders with very big, tall, skinny tires (the corn is ridiculously tall already) and go down the rows spreading fertilizer in the rows of corn. We don’t apply annhydrous ammonia (which some farmers do) very early and they ‘spike’ it into the ground because it’s like a gas. It pretty much does the same thing as it is a nitrogen fertilizer but we don’t have the equipment for that. Plus it’s dangerous and prone to theft since people will find an annhydrous tank and break into it trying to steal the contents to make methamphetamine.

Thanks for the reminder about freezing basil, Lagatta. I’m hoping the basil I planted does ok this year.
Hey PG, have I mentioned I drive a jag? Not supercool like this one but the same color blue with a saddle interior. Look up 2001 s-type. Bought it when gas was expensive about 10 years ago from the doctor I work for now. Gets much better mileage than my truck. And yeah, it’s got that beautiful hood ornament!
Thanks for explaining that, KZ. Jersey corn is not quite ready, it’s coming up from the southeast right now and is very tasty.
JK, my walk was short today too. Hopefully the showers will cool us off a bit. Love the pink money!