Kakahead

Here it is October already!!  Where does the time fly off to?  Anyhow?  Our dear friend Martha Grace commented about this very thing way back in May when a bunch of us were out gallivanting during Memorial Day weekend.  Her remark then was, “May is almost gone!  How is this possible?!?!?”  Well as the old saying goes, “time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana!”

Not sure who said that exactly…

Anyway.  One of the truly awesome things about October is the harvest.  Michigan is truly blessed in this regard; and this year has definitely been a winner for gardens.  Last year we were all praying we would actually get ripe tomatoes before our plants died of blight.  This year we’re happy the frost is on the way to kill the stupid things.  EVERYONE has way too many tomatoes.  The bean plants gave us three pickings.  There could have been more but we really began to lose interest in beans.  So we have seeds coming for next year…

I like to grow things that you just can’t find in your common everyday produce section.  Things like pods for example.  OK, they’re really called “grey hubbard” squash, but if anyone remembers the original movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” you’ll know why our family calls them pods.  See for yourself.  Click on the photo for the full view. —>

This thing weighs about 50 pounds.

As you saw in the first picture our pumpkins did pretty well.   The next picture shows the pod posing with some of the pumpkins we got this year.

Two pumpkin plants proved to be more than enough.

And of course we have the “Michigan watermelons.”

Lots of seeds but quite delicious.

I got the seeds from a nice gent who was selling organically grown melons at the farmers market about five years ago (maybe more… time flies, remember?).  He had “Michigan watermelons” and “sky and stars” melons.  I asked him why they were named such, and he replied “these are the only watermelons that reliably grow in Michigan.”  He was referring to both the Michigan watermelon and the sky and stars melon; so I bought one of each.  Both were simply delicious.  The only “complaint” would be that the Michigan watermelon had lots and lots of seeds.  I put “complaint” in quotes because it’s not really a problem for a seed saver like me.

Last but not least is the sky and stars melon.  We attacked this melon right away because it was REALLY ready to eat.  So, silly me, I didn’t get a picture of it until we had eaten most of it.

Is this a cool melon or what?

I found a similar animal called “moon and stars” at Park Seed’s website which has very large round patches of yellow.  This variety has no moons

Here's the innards... very sweet with watermelon texture but different flavor.

I’ve been saving the seeds and growing both kinds of Michigan melons for several years now, and if I get them in the ground early enough they always produce. This is a big deal for us because we love watermelon but I was never able to get them to go to full maturity before.

I was out in the garden yesterday getting what will probably be the last of the tomatoes.  We’re going up north with some friends this weekend and the weather report looks like frost.

That will be the end of the tomatoes, but there are still lots of collards, kohlrabi, kale, beets, and swiss chard (although the latter two may get nipped a bit).  Maybe even the tail end of the rhubarb if we’re lucky.  OH!! and not to forget the potatoes!!  Just for the fun of it I plopped some potato hunks I salvaged from some that were sprouting in the pantry.  The silly things did very well so I’m eager to see what kind of buried treasure awaits.

In the meantime, ol’ Jack Frost will usher in the magical transformation that is autumn.  Speaking of Jack Frost… here’s one of my favorites from 1934: