I was surprised today when I checked the progress on the sweet potato vines I started rooting 5 days ago. Lo and behold, they were not just starting to sprout but were sporting really nice root clusters. So these guys, 10 plants, were stuck in the garden muy pronto. Also new, I planted a few tomotilla seeds for Tom. He wants the product to make really authentic salsa. Speaking of tomatoes and potatoes, most people wouldn’t guess they are related but you can sure see it when the plants are young. The leaves are almost identical. That’s the Idaho’s not the sweets. Also surprising is that the squash plants I had under covers for insect protection are actually growing up against the top of the covers so those plants are over 2′ tall. They’re really looking good with a few baby squash already developing. I’m going to lengthen the legs of the cover supports and try to keep them covered as long as possible. What really makes me happy about this particular squash is that it was a variety that I tried before here with zero success. Fingers crossed that the trend I’ve got going this time holds.
Put out more green beans, a variety called Derby that I’ve never tried so long but was enticed to from the catalog description. Also planted the winter squash seeds in between the rows of corn. The corn has reached a height of 6†or so and by the time these new seeds germinate and develop real leaves, the corn should be well over a foot tall and in no danger of being shaded. I put in two types of butternut squash, Waltham, an old heritage variety that I’ve bent my pick on before and a hybrid that has provided good squash here for the past couple of years. I also put in a few spaghetti squash seeds. No history at all on this variety, named vermicelli, but sounds like a good name for spaghetti squash to me.
At Tom’s urging, we’re curing and smoking the ham for Easter this year. The curing process takes about a week so we put it in the brine on Saturday. The smoking part is only 4 hours so we’ll pop it in the smoker about 9AM Easter Sunday for a 2 Pm chow down. He had one of these home cured hams at a friend’s house and said it was the best he’d ever eaten so here we go. I’ll pick a couple cabbages and make Dutch cole slaw and a large bunch of carrots for shredded carrot salad. We’re expecting anywhere from 15-20 people but won’t know the final head count until it actually happens.
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