Chartreuse and ruffles

The fall lettuce is at it's peak, flouting chartreuse, dimpled leaves and red ruffles.  It is so easy to pick the large outer leaves of each plant to make a huge salad of diverse colors and textures.  Picked this way, the plants keep growing, and most are ready for another picking in only 2 or 3 days.  The salads are tender and sweet, just how I like them.  One of the dogs, Jo, reaches in and munches off a few leaves each time she passes the garden.  It is a riot, and so difficult to smile and scold at the same time.

The bees pay for my mistake

About 6 weeks ago I found one hive with tons of honey and bees, but no queen. Although it was really late in the season, I made the decision to give them eggs and brood from another hive, in hopes they would make a queen. It was the wrong call. It was too late in the season, and deep down I knew that. But I didn't stop there. I made more bad decisions in each of the last three weeks, as I determined the weather was too windy, too cold, or too rainy to open and check the hive. In retrospect, opening it in any weather would have been better than what happened. Here is what a hive infested with wax moth larvae looks like. It is nasty ugly. I hope I have learned my lessons here. Lost hardware and lost bees. Sad.












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Arugula!

My first fall arugula harvest was today. These beautiful spicy leaves will get tossed in with garlic sautéed in olive oil, just till they wilt a little, then the mixture will be added to pasta. One of my all time favorite dinners. Now it feels like fall, because fall has reached the kitchen.

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Cooperative Extension

I am a horticulture agent and county director for North Carolina Cooperative Extension in Carteret County, NC. I am in the process of setting priorities for our future programming, and could use your help. If you live in or own property in Carteret County, would you please take a moment to answer a 20 question, anonymous survey that will tell us which issues are most important to you? Just click on the link below, or cut and paste it to your browser. Thank you!

http://harvest.cals.ncsu.edu/surveybuilder/form.cfm?testID=12656

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