I Like Big ...
Watermelons and I cannot lie. You mother....{sing amongst yourselves}
Ok, but seriously. I came home from my most recent foray into the lives of the rich and famous to a garden gone wild. I've been monitoring my biggest watermelon for some time now debating on when to harvest it. Google has been somewhat of a help and [cringe] I even watched a YouTube video on melon picking. Yesterday I decided it was time. So, I went out to the patch with my garden shears ready to cut the umbilical cord of life to the baby I've been birthing for 90+ days. I poked, I prodded, I inspected, I thumped and I still just couldn't commit. I was seriously in the garden for about 20 minutes staring at this big ol' melon. I put the shears to the vine, I took them away and so on until I turned my head, closed my eyes and...snip. Death to the watermelon. I was a little excited and a little devastated about the whole thing all at the same time. I picked up the melon - well, after much slip sliding and dirt streaking I wrangled it is a more accurate description. This thing was ridic heavy. Omar says 10 pounds. I say like 30 pounds. I still wasn't sure if I had done the right thing, but I figured how much bigger could this thing honestly get?!
Perfection. I may or may not have jumped up and down a little. And though I was extremely sad to dice up my baby (we all know how attached I get to inanimate objects) - it was delicious. Better than any store bought watermelon - ever. If you count the hours of labor, and money spent buying seeds, watering and weed control it's probably also the most expensive watermelon I've ever eaten as well. But hey - I GREW IT. A miracle.
The rest of the garden is doing pretty well too. I have a million jalapenos coming in - like I will never be able to eat that many. The kale burnt up in the heat wave weeks ago - oh well. The tomatoes : still non-existent [sigh]. The okra is out of control. You saw how big that melon was yes? Well, meet the Jolly Green Giant of all okras:
Ok, but seriously. I came home from my most recent foray into the lives of the rich and famous to a garden gone wild. I've been monitoring my biggest watermelon for some time now debating on when to harvest it. Google has been somewhat of a help and [cringe] I even watched a YouTube video on melon picking. Yesterday I decided it was time. So, I went out to the patch with my garden shears ready to cut the umbilical cord of life to the baby I've been birthing for 90+ days. I poked, I prodded, I inspected, I thumped and I still just couldn't commit. I was seriously in the garden for about 20 minutes staring at this big ol' melon. I put the shears to the vine, I took them away and so on until I turned my head, closed my eyes and...snip. Death to the watermelon. I was a little excited and a little devastated about the whole thing all at the same time. I picked up the melon - well, after much slip sliding and dirt streaking I wrangled it is a more accurate description. This thing was ridic heavy. Omar says 10 pounds. I say like 30 pounds. I still wasn't sure if I had done the right thing, but I figured how much bigger could this thing honestly get?!
After Harvest:
 |
| Ginormous watermelon |
Huge right? Much ado about nothing later, Omar decides to finally cut it open. I held my breath. Who knows what it looked like inside. Well, my friends. It looked like this:
Perfection. I may or may not have jumped up and down a little. And though I was extremely sad to dice up my baby (we all know how attached I get to inanimate objects) - it was delicious. Better than any store bought watermelon - ever. If you count the hours of labor, and money spent buying seeds, watering and weed control it's probably also the most expensive watermelon I've ever eaten as well. But hey - I GREW IT. A miracle.
The rest of the garden is doing pretty well too. I have a million jalapenos coming in - like I will never be able to eat that many. The kale burnt up in the heat wave weeks ago - oh well. The tomatoes : still non-existent [sigh]. The okra is out of control. You saw how big that melon was yes? Well, meet the Jolly Green Giant of all okras:
 |
| Abnormal okra |
I mean what in the?!
I cooked it all up into a big pot of okra and tomatoes - of course, only I will be eating. Omar scoffs at greens. I scoff at Omar.
I have two more watermelons that are getting close to being ready as well. I may wait a little longer on these two though and see what happens. A smashing success thus far.
And that, dear readers, is this week's installment of Adventures in Gardening. Toodles.
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