The quest for the perfect variety of pickling cucumber for our microclimate continues.
This one (Wisconsin SMR 58, from St. Clare Seeds) doesn’t seem to enjoy the heat very much. It has started to become quite wilted. Still producing a few small cucumbers though, but nothing like the volume we had hoped for.
By contrast, their Chicago Warted Hubbard seems to be going like a boss. In fact, one of the squash got too heavy for its vine and fell off the trellis long before it was ripe. We will have to keep an eye on that, and if that becomes a trend will have to back all the remaining hanging hubbards to help support them and protect them from their own weight.
This is the first Dolgo crabapple we have tasted off the Dolgo crabapple trees. This one had turned almost completely purple. On the hunch that that meant it was ripe I plucked it and tasted it. It has a very sweet flavor, nothing like the pucker-up-buttercup tartness of the wild crabapples I grew up with. It is sweet, fruity, and somewhat tangy, but with a dry slightly fibrous texture. We’ll have to eat a few more to see what we really think.
Little Farm in the Big City 