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How does my garden grow?

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Awful, stunted tomatoes, one pepper, one okra (!), and pitiful yellow squash. 

Ah, but the zucchini.  I am eating it for breakfast (really, as we speak), lunch, dinner, and dessert. 

 Attack of the Squash People (by the incredible Marge Piercy)

              And thus the people every year
              in the valley of humid July
              did sacrifice themselves
              to the long green phallic god
              and eat and eat and eat.
             
              They’re coming, they’re on us,
              the long striped gourds, the silky
              babies, the hairy adolescents,
              the lumpy vast adults
              like the trunks of green elephants.
              Recite fifty zucchini recipes!
 
             …….
 
             Beg on the highway: please
             take my zucchini, I have a crippled
             mother at home with heartburn.
            
             Sneak out before dawn to drop
             them in other people’s gardens,
             in baby buggies at churchdoors.
             Shot, smuggling zucchini into
             mailboxes, a federal offense.
 
             ……..            
            
             You give and give
             too much, like summer days
             limp with heat, thunderstorms
             bursting their bags on our heads,
             as we salt and freeze and pickle
             for the too little to come.
 
(full text here)
 
My favorite way to eat them this year:  chop and cook big chunks in garlic, olive oil, salt, onion, and fresh basil.  Eat on whole wheat angel hair pasta with crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce.  Oh, how I wish my own tomatoes were thriving this year. 

3 responses »

  1. You may share a few nibbles with your Moma!

    Reply
  2. My tomatoes aren’t doing well this year either. We have lots of beans and gourd-like veggies though. It’s so fun to eat stuff out of your own garden, especially when you have little ones to share it with. I wish we could plant more, but I guess it’s just a process- a little bigger each year.

    Reply
  3. Our tomatoes are very slow this year. I’m hoping we will have a lot soon. Our corn looks awesome so far.

    Reply

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