July 30, 2023- This is not the end of the season

The lilies are mostly over. There has been no rain for  two weeks.  This week featured some unbelieveably hot weather. It was particularly hot on Friday. 

About the time I wrote that Friday evening the sirens went off. The heat had spawned storms, which blew through Iowa City about 8 pm. That was just in time for 25,000 people on bicycles who were stopping overnight in Coralville on what is known as RAGBRAI. 

We wound up with only about .22 of an inch of rain. That was sort of helpful. I will probably have to turn on the sprinklers tomorrow.

But we have internet and cable, together for the first time in a month. 

It is the time when it becomes more difficult to garden. It is hot. The deer continue to nibble here and there. Most of the high summer flowers are over.

That is exactly when one needs to work harder in the garden. You have to think about what the garden will be like in September and October. What will be blooming then and what can you do now? 

So...last weekend we planted 4 flats of ornamental kale seeds. each flat had 32 little cells. They will be two months old by October. It was a little late, but...

For your voting pleasure I can now give you pictures from a two week period.

#1 Calla lily

#2 Cattleya orchid 

This has now been blooming for two weeks.

#3  White orchid cactus

This is epiphyllum hookeri. It will continue to bloom until frost.

#4 Unusual Blackberry lily

Blackberry lilies are really iris. This variety reliably comes back every year.

#5 Remarkable Zinnia 

I only have a few zinnias. I should grow more. But I have a few, with the first ones blooming this week.

This color combination turned out to be really special. Green and purple and yellow. Who would have thought that would work.

Other pictures from mostly this week

Hoyas

This next plant must have 15 flower clusters. 

Clivia repotting

We got the one clivia out of my mother's very nice pot. I had been afraid it would get so rootbound that it could not come out.

Scott, who mostly knows vegetables, had never seen roots like this.

Other pictures

Here are several pictures of blackberry lilies. You have seen this first one above. I included it again so you could see it next to other varities.

I almost let you vote for this next picture. I liked it as you can see the spent flowers, as they are all rolled up.

Julia's recipe 

Baked Omelette with Zucchini

 It is high summer at the farmer's market. So much fresh produce from the market or one's own garden or friends and neighbors! This recipe is from a cookbook by Joanne Weir called From Tapas to Meze. It's small plates, often side dishes or salads. I had flipped by this recipe in the past, but it appealed to me recently when I had some herbs from our little garden and a zucchini from a nice neighbor and some leftover rice. It is a vegetarian main dish and very good and easy to make.

The ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice;

4 tablespoons olive oil;

3/4 cup sliced leeks;

3 cups coarsely grated zucchini;

3 tablespoons chopped mint;

2 tablespoons chopped dill fronds or unripe dill heads;

8 eggs;

1/2 cup diced or crumbled feta;

some salt and pepper.

A few notes on ingredients: I used leeks. Diced onion or shallot would work. Red onion would be pretty. I had zucchini. Summer squash would be fine. I did not have 2 tablespoons of young dill as the hot temperatures have pushed everything along. I think I only had about 1 teaspoon, who gave a suggestion of dill. More dill would be good. Not ripe dill which is seedy and crunchy. 

I started by slicing the leeks and then I coarsely grated the zucchini. 

I turned the oven on to 325 degrees. I live in a house with air conditioning. So I bake even in the summer. 

I sauteed the leek rounds in 2 tablespoons of olive oil for about 10 minutes on medium high heat. The leek rounds turned golden with some browning. 

I transferred the leeks to a big bowl, added the other 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet followed by the zucchini. I seasoned the zucchini with about 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper.

I cooked the zucchini for maybe 6 or 7 minutes also on medium high heat until it softened up some. 

I added the cooked zucchini to the big bowl, followed by the rice, the herbs and the feta. Lastly, I added the eggs.

I stirred everything up. And I sprayed a 9" x 9" baking dish with cooking spray. I poured the mixture into the baking dish and it went into the oven.

It baked for about 35 minutes and was done!

I don't know why it looks so pale in this picture. 

On the plate. We had a side dish of eggplant salad (recipe on the blog somewhere) and zucchini bread. Plus blueberries and yogure. 

One of the nice things about this omelette is that it holds its shape. I think the rice is partly respnsible for that. 

It was good cold later in the week. 

Odds and Ends

Report from the vegetable annex:

Any thoughts as to what vegetable has this flower?

I guess the pods might have been a good clue. It is Okra. We harvested the first 10 pods this week. We are having to look for any okra recipes, once we get beyond gumbo.

We will eat this guy this week. The bugs have disappeared. The eggplant was first bothered by potato bugs, and then the usual flea beatles. Maybe they did not like the hot weather. Actually I dusted for them which seemed to do the trick.

It has been hot. Friday was the worst. The bank said 103. 

I remembered a summer where is was like that for a month. I looked at the helpful extension webcite. That really hot time was 2012. The summer of Mitt Romney and Hurricane Sandy. Here is the month for Iowa City.

On top of the heat that month, there was no rain.

2012 had started with warm weather in February. The aconite was blooming that month along with other spring bulbs.

A quick review of Julys since 2012 shows one temperature that was over 100. That was 103 on July 22, 2016.

That is it for this week. I am going over to pick eggplant. Sunday afternoons are often times to cook things for the week to come.

Stay cool.

Try not to think about the crazy politicians who have descended on Iowa. 

Pray for peace. 

Philip