Poems and Beans are Coming in Hard

I usually write this blog on Saturday, but yesterday was full out garden and processing work all day.  We were both exhausted by supper time and I cut back on what I’d planned to cook and made everything simpler, all I had enough energy for.  Woody was even more exhausted. Much fof my work is processing, freezing in the kitchen -- hot but I get to sit down much of the time. He was working out in very hot, very humid conditions.

The pole beans having begun to come in huge basketsful. I’ve frozen over ten pounds already and when I finish this blog, I’ll deal with the ones he just brought in.   We had amazing success with the cucumbers this year in spite of the drought.  But this week was the last of them that we had for supper last night. I planted some more this morning, three kinds as well as cilantro as that is slowing down also.  We are still getting zucchini, a few Oriental eggplants, frying peppers and rhubarb.  The shallots should be ready to dig today or Tuesday.  We harvested the garlic and I processed it all yesterday morning, cutting the stalks off, cutting off the shaggy roots and wiping off dirt.  It took me an hour and forty minutes.

My poetry group met this Wednesday evening.  It’s always very helpful. Thursday morning, I revised the two poems we went over.  I seem to be in the period when I no longer write haikus but regular poems and more of them that I add to my new book.  Partly it’s a matter of time. The gardens are demanding in summer and early fall-- take a lot of my time and energy – even more so for Woody.

Last night we didn’t have any of the thunderstorms, high winds or hail that fell on the mainland, but we did get a gentle rain for two and a half hours.  That made the gardens happy.  Finally, at least some rain.  These prolonged, very hot periods without rain are driving us both crazy…and driven us inside. Hence, I’ve also been working on straightening my office and bedroom and closets, trying for a bit of order there.

Tonight, I’ll cook chicken Vesuvio that in spite of its name is a Northern Italian dish with potatoes.  I’ll steam, then saute, beans with mushrooms, onions and garlic, maybe a bit of summer savory, nicknamed the bean herb.

I’m reading LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus, quite interesting, although of course, I know a lot bout sexism in academia.  When I went through four years at the University of Michigan, I had exactly one female professor, and she was nontenured although she taught there for decades.  We became friends and I was in touch with her  until she died. I was an adjunct myself at the University of Indiana, Gary, paid almost nothing, and had my classes cut when I wouldn’t fuck a powerful academic in charge of hiring. That’s when I married Robert, my second husband and we left Chicago for Cambridge MA.

Woody and I made zucchini relish this week, five half pints.  I always give one to my old friend John Nichols at the winter solstice and we eat the rest ourselves.  With five, I might give one more away.  Three generally lasts us the year.