Dream Garden
By Darlene McManus
September 2009
My sister Norma telephoned, “Bring your truck and camera. We’ve got zucchini, cucumbers, beets, beans, and kohlrabi, plus squash literally climbing up the apple tree.”
So we drove to Idaho. We’d get some free produce and return the chainsaw Pat had borrowed from our brother-in-law, Dolph.
We were just pulling up to their house when Norma ran out of the house yelling something about her husband being kidnapped!
Apparently, Dolph had been napping in bed when the door flew open and a long green tendril wrapped around his leg and began dragging him through the house and out the back door toward the garden. Norma, who had also been napping, awoke to Dolph’s screams, just in time to see him disappear out the door.
She grabbed a machete and, seeing that we had arrived, yelled at Pat to fire up the chainsaw. Then they both raced off toward the garden where they found Dolph, lovingly wrapped in a giant pumpkin vine’s embrace.
Once Dolph was freed with the machete and chainsaw (some of the vines were the thickness of a man’s arm), Dolph vowed right then and there to limit the number of pickup loads of horse manure he would put on next year’s garden.
It took some fortification with glasses of lemonade for us to go back into the garden to gather up some vegetables to take home.
I know this sounds like a dream, but it couldn’t have been. I have the stack of giant zucchini logs to prove it. Now where’s that zucchini cookbook when I need it?
As for our other loot, I made Cucumbers in Sour Cream and Pickled Beets, plus a pot of beans and ham, salads, and I don’t know what all.
I took both of these dishes to our August birthday party. I doubled the cucumber recipe and still had cucumbers left from Dolph’s garden. Everyone brought salads. We also had barbecued chicken wings and a huge birthday cake.
The highlight of the party was meeting our newest great-grandbaby girl. She was born in July; we’ve never had a July baby before, and we are expecting her to add a little playfulness to all our August old reliables.
That’s all from here. Take care and drive carefully; the little kids will soon be headed back to school.
Bun