Back from An Un-Plugged Week at the Cape

We have returned after an all-too-short week on the Cape.  I'm too mellow to complain about anything with any proper level of sustained aggravation.   The weather was nearly perfect.  The only rain we got lasted about two hours.  Somebody said that the best time to catch fish is just after it stops raining.  So, we grabbed our poles and went over to the pond (30 yards away).  We caught a couple of good sized fish, on funky yellow spinner lures.  Unfortunately, I never read the section of the manual where it tells you how to use the camera function on the cellphone and instead lost the photographic proof of the huge Bass and Pike we caught!    They were THIS big (Holds hands about 18 inches apart)...ok maybe more like this (13 inches).

Anyhow,  we went swimming both in the pond by the cottage and also at the salt water beach near West Falmouth. The kids and grandkids came in family groups 3 days each.  They all had a good time, from the feedback I received.  The rubber rafts that I bought at Rhode Island Job Lot were a big hit.

One local provider of lobsters was having a sale ($5.99 per lb for 1.25 lb lobsters) all week so we steamed-up batches on two separate occasions.  Judy insisted that we only wanted male lobsters.  She doesn't like the red lobster roe.  So the fish guy was patient enough to check the genitalia of each lobster.  He tried to show us how to tell the difference, but we seemed immune to such fine distinctions and just nodded as he dropped the frisky fellers into the bag.  These smaller lobsters were the tenderest and tastiest I have enjoyed in years. Not to mention they were relatively inexpensive - normal price is $7.99 for "chicken lobsters."   Of course our feasts were accompanied by hot native corn on the cob.  And cold imported beer (from California).

The problem with August vacations is the garden.  All summer long, you tend and weed and fertilize and water.  Then just as everything is about to ripen, you go away.  When you come back you find that everything dried-up or the squirrels ate all your ripe tomatoes and rabbits ravaged the greenery.

But not this time:  Look at what I picked today!

Another Reason Why I Did Not Enter "The Best Tomato" Contest

One of the uninvited guests to my garden this years was this tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta as identified by its red horn is not to be confused with its equally voracious cousin - the tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata) - which sports a black horn and slightly different markings. Often found together, they grow into large caterpillars - about the size of your middle finger. (The ultimate insult!)


It is an eating machine that defoliates plants and eats the fruit as well. It can cause a lot of damage in just a few days on tomato plants because it strips leaves that are needed to shade the ripening tomatoes.



The good news is that they have a natural enemy (other than the gardener). The enemy is a parasitic wasp that lays eggs on the caterpillar. The eggs hatch and start to feed on the caterpillar, killing it. The bottom picture is the same hornworm a few days later, covered with wasp cocoons. The crops are saved!

Finally, with the first frost date for Northeast gardens approaching quickly, we have managed to pick a few ripening tomatoes. I pick them when they first start to blush pink and let them ripen indoors. If I do not do this, the squirrels will come and take the red ones.

Homegrown tomatoes will fully ripen in 2-3 days inside in a warm place, unlike the tasteless things you buy at the supermarket, which have been bred for long shelf-life.

Unfortunately, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the attributes that give longer shelf-life and those that produce wonderful flavor.

Why I didn't Enter the Best Tomato Contest this year

This is what home grown tomatoes are supposed to look like at this time of year
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This is what my tomatoes look like.














The weather in New England was not very good for tomato growing this year. During June and July we had the rainiest and coolest summer in memory. August has been seasonal but my poor golfball sized Jetstars need a lot of catching up if I am going to have ripe tomatoes before frost.

Like the folk singer says, "Thays only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown termaters." Amen to that.