My Miniature Honeydew Melon

A few years ago I tried grown cantaloupe melons. I managed to harvest 2 miniature cantaloupe melons. They were the size of oranges but super sweet. I took a break of two years and decided to try growing melons again. I planted both honeydew and cantaloupe during the summer. I saw a lot of flowers but no melon was forming. Master Ken has talked about the type of weather corn and melons love - so hot that it's uncomfortable to fall to sleep at night. They thrive in that kind of weather, and we are definitely not get that here on Sand Village Farm. We hardly even had any summer this year. We had a couple heatwaves, and one came through while I was in New York. When I came back from New York, I was delighted to see a golf ball size honeydew melon.

More than a month went by, and that melon grew to the size of a tennis ball. I could see that it just wasn't going to get any bigger, and it is now fall. It's not going to get any warmer.  Today I cut it up in quarters to eat it. It smelled wonderful and tasted sweet. Would you buy miniture melons? I would because it is like a personal size melon. You can eat it all by yourself. It would be really cute to serve a scoop of gelato in a halve miniature melon. What do you think?

Home, Sweet Farm

"lucky" asparagus?

Ten days ago, we left the farm and ventured over to New York and Baltimore to visit family and friends. Prior to departure, we did as much preparation as possible. We picked as many vegetables and fruits to eat and give to neighbors. I also took several pots of plants to the greenhouse on campus which has automatic sprinkler system. Our neighbor had offered to take care of Dusty during our absence; however, I couldn't possibly ask her to manually water all the raised beds and wine barrels full of vegetables and herbs.

First honeydew melon. It's a little bigger than a golf ball now.

While we were in Baltimore, I checked the weather in the Bay Area. We had another heat wave in the high 80's and low 90's! I normally take Dusty to his cage out in the shaded area when temperature gets that high. I was a little worried about him, but I knew he would be okay. He knows to find a cooler spot when it's hot. Bunnies are not as dumb as some people think. I figured some vegetables would dry out from the heat, but as long as they didn't die off completely, I could revive them upon return.

The cocktail Asian pear tree is blooming again

We returned this afternoon, and I immediately started visiting all the edible plants. I found some asparagus with one growing like one of those "lucky bamboo" plants. It's all twisted. I found one baby honeydew melon that managed to grow to the size of a golf ball. The cocktail Asian pear tree is blooming again. It's called "cocktail" because it is grafted with 5 or 6 varieties of Asian pear. Maybe I will have a few more Asian pears this year. There is also another over grown Japanese cucumber. The bean stalk was full of green beans. Guess what we are having for dinner?

Dusty hopped out from his box and hopped over to my feet. I guess that's his way of saying "welcome home."

Another over grown Japanese cucumber