The Grapes Of Social Media...

 My neighbor, Kim had an incredible row of grape vines. I remember talking to him one day from across the property boundary. He said he got a start from some wild grapes that grew up the canyon. Now, it's been a few years since we had that conversation so I may be mis-remembering some of the details. One thing I'm remembering correctly was the row of vines in his yard. They were healthy and produced a lot of fruit.

Last year my wife wanted for us to start growing grapes. We found two very small plants and stuck them in the ground. I put up a bamboo pole by each and hoped for the best. This summer, spring we noticed tiny round objects growing from one of the plants.

We finally had our grapes.

We are admittedly in the early stages of this process. As anyone knows, anything can come along and wipe out our entire crop...it wouldn't take much. We're hoping to aid the plants and help them grow, maybe even get a few more and have an entire wall of healthy fruit-producing plants.

Something surprised me the other day. I posted a picture of the first bunch of grapes I picked on social media (posted a picture of the grapes, not a picture of me picking them...). I post at least one picture on social media every day. I've been doing it for a while. Most of the time, I'll get a few "likes" and even a comment or two, but when almost a hundred people took time to acknowledge my photo, I find that interesting. 

Clicking a "like" is a simple thing. I do it all the time. If you find these kinds of things interesting, too, grow some grapes and post a picture on your social media feeds. If I see it, I'll definitely "like" it.

The Homemade Pickle Makes The Meal...

 Summer...we eat differently in the summer. We make fewer hot meals in the evening because of the heat, which leads to fewer leftover meals for lunch. I find myself making more sandwiches at lunch time than at other times in the year.

But, this year, there's something new...

Homemade pickles.

You probably didn't know this, but my wife is an award-winning pickler. It's true. She earned that distinction decades ago when our church congregation had a cooking contest. She walked away with the best pickles. Though the ones she made recently are not the ones for which she won the award, they're darn good.

And, yes...they made the meal.

Last year we had a home garden, but we didn't take full advantage of the space and did not get a jump on things early enough in the year. This year, we've tried to be more proactive. We planted a lot of cucumber plants and they are producing a lot of vegetables--got to use them whenever possible.

I am a pickle fan so I'm happy about the development. We're hoping to harvest other crops from the garden, especially tomatoes, which, by the way, are excellent on sandwiches.

I wonder if they make the meal, too.

Knight (Not Napoleon...), Give Me Some Of Your Tots

 Last week was harvest time at the Taylors. Our massive potato field needed to be gleaned of the golden vegetables. It ended a scientific and culinary experiment. Can we grow potatoes in a home garden?

The answer is yes. It can be done.

These aren't all the potatoes we found--others fulfilled their destiny and became food, but those remaining were cleaned and prepared for yet another meal, or snack, or side dish.

I have many cousins, and many of them grew up in Idaho. Back then, you could get your driver's license at age fourteen. There were restrictions, of course. If I remember correctly, a fourteen-year old could not drive at night. Why did Idaho allow such early driving?

Farmwork.

You got to harvest those potatoes. 

I remember in parts of the state, kids even had school canceled so they could help with the harvest. I waas always a bit envious of my cousins until one fall I happened to be visiting family during the potato harvest season and I saw how much work it took to bring those spuds in. It's a LOT of work. I think days of legal underage driving and time off for the potato harvest are long past. Still, I'm sure many a forty to sixty-year old Idaho native remembers those days.

We didn't know what we were doing when we planted several potato starts in our yard months ago. To be honest, I didn't know what I was doing--my son Knight had researched what to do and his hard work paid off. I've had the fruits of his labors and he did well.

Soon, my son will be leaving the nest to create his own household. I'm not sure where they'll end up--not sure if they exactly know themselves, and that's okay. They'll figure it out. I also wonder if they'll plant potatoes next spring.

Time will tell.