RE: It's pesto time of year again (and the price of HIVE goes nuts!)
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Heheh, do you have a meal called "pudding" there? Never heard of it.
Speaking of meals, did you enjoy a toke with your lunch outside with the tomatoes? :) Tomatoes like cannabis smoke and vapour, but get sick from tobacco, so if you use that be careful smoking it around them.
The tomatoes look great! We like pesto too but can't find pine nuts for anywhere near a reasonable price, and they have to be imported, so we generally don't.
What a difference location makes! Here in BC, my 2 types of basil did poorly this year because it was too hot. I watered enough to keep it happy, but it was the intense direct sun and 45C heat that held it back. Even the aloe plant and cannabis (male) out in the yard couldn't handle it. Even my basils in partial shade didn't produce. Hell, even the birdberry tree in the back yard didn't flower or produce berries this year! I've really had to coax the tomatoes along - I won't get a crop from them, but I'll get my seeds back, barely. I started in February and have worked nonstop on this little garden all year, and I've got nothing to show for it. Brutal year! There weren't even any insects for pollination, and we got 6 weeks of darkness, ash, and smoke right in the middle of summer. And it has only rained 4 times since last Christmas.
Soooooo, complain away about the cool damp weather, and your pea plants that produced for months, etc etc LOL
Price of food at the farmers market is up 100% this year. Box of tomatoes $30, last year $15. Head of broccoli $7, last year $4, and so on. Even the semi-pros are struggling to produce anything here. General food prices at the store are already creeping up 5% every month... I think this poor harvest is going to compound that over the winter. I will be canning as many tomatoes (mostly from the farmers market) as I can. We make a lot of stews, pastas, and chillis during the cold months :)
I have a second little sprout on the way. We are very excited about the addition, but very scared about the next 7 months. Katie's spine is fused and her organs were burned badly by radiation for cancer as a child (they didn't know cannabinoids would have instantly cured the type of tumour she had). So surgery is the only way, meaning we have to inject ourselves into the evil big pharma beast system we have been fighting to destroy for 10+ years. We barely made it, with Brett. So many doors closed right after he came, and we said "good thing he's the one and only". Now we're squirming a bit. I'm trying to convey how I feel without giving the algos my entire soul but you get the picture. I wish we could hang for a minute.
Love from Canada.
You don't say pudding? I suppose you don't. You live in a land where rubbish bins are trash cans and pavements are sidewalks ;)
Interesting about tomatoes and their preferences. Never heard that before. Would love to try a controlled grow, one with the addition of cannabis vapour, one without, to see the difference. All I need is a grow room now...
Yes, pine nuts aren't cheap. There are plenty of pine trees around here but I don't have a clue how to harvest their nuts! Should probably look into that. Am waiting for the local walnuts to ripen enough before I start making the parsley pesto. I wonder if you could substitute sunflower seeds for pine nuts? Might be worth a shot. Perhaps roasted sunflower seeds?
I wasn't so much complaining about the cold weather, more just commenting on it. In fact the temperature is perfect at the moment and the figs have just come into season, so I've started making jam with them. Ten pots so far...
Your Summer really does sound like an extreme test. And it is hard for me to comment. If you only had one variety which was doing well in the heat I would say to focus on that, but it doesn't sound like there was anything. My only thought (as impractical as it may be) is to create a sunken greenhouse for next year. Might even make a cool place for you to hang out if your AC goes down. This is the first link which came up when I googled it, but it seems to have some good suggestions: https://insteading.com/blog/underground-greenhouse/
Thank you for reporting on your local food prices. That's pretty crazy. But not altogether unexpected. Things have increased here but not by that much. Yet.
Congrats for the baby coming! Bit tricky on the timing but something my dad used to say comes to mind - 'where there is a will there is a way'. Do you remember that thing we were discussing relating to the ethics of faking something to be a part of a system you are against? Perhaps, knowing what you know about your situation, you could make an exception on this occasion and look into it? At all costs the poison should be avoided. Especially if you are pregnant.
We could always schedule a chat if you feel like talking?
All the best to you brother.