I guess that's what you could say about our big artichoke plant. We started with five, but three plants died off over the years. Of the two that are left, one is small and the other is huge. This year, it has more artichokes on it than ever before — maybe a dozen.
I guess this is due to humid conditions and limited sunshine. After all, artichokes grow really well in Brittany and on the northern California coast. Neither place is known for bright sunny weather, even (or especially) in late spring and summer.
We just might have to cut and cook a few of these artichokes this weekend. Maybe they will be good to eat; maybe not. They evidently have enjoyed the recent growing conditions.
Another crop that is producing well is the snow peas, called pois mange-tout or pois gourmands in French. We'll be having some more more for lunch today, in a stir-fry. The photo below is not great, but it will give you an idea. There are purple pea pods and green peas pods on the trellis.
Finally, here's the state of the vegetable garden on June 16. Actually, it looks to be lagging the 2015 garden on about the same date. And I wrote then that the garden was behind its normal schedule. (You can see the artichoke plant in the background on the right.)
This morning I got up and made a pot of coffee. Walt came downstairs half an hour later. I heard him say: "What, no water?" Effectivement. No running water. Who knows why the flow has stopped or when it will be restored. History will record 2016 as the year of the waters around here, I'm sure.
Maybe it's the same thing that happened in Preuilly-sur-Claise because of the flooding earlier this month and they cut the water until they know if it is drinkable for sure?
ReplyDeleteI'm inclined to agree with you chm...
ReplyDeletethe levels were exceptional and all sorts of run off has got into the systems....
probably not tested in times afore, the technology exists today to do the test very quickly....
but Ken and Walt are in the best commune to know... the Maire lives there!!
Ken, this year has been noticeably colder and wetter than last year so far, hasn't it...
our poor potagers... I think a lot of the plants are sulking!
The water came back on, but it's sputtering and hissing out of the faucet and the pressure is low. Thank goodness it came back on because when I got back from the walk with Callie, the poor dog was soaking wet and covered in mud. I hadn't thought about the problem of giving her her morning bath. I thought I might have to leave her outside, or at least in the utility room, for a while. But I was able to wash her off, even though the sputtering and hissing shower head was not to her liking.
ReplyDeleteHow awful. We were told not to drink the tap water for about a week after exceptional rains a couple of years ago. The mairie handed out bottled water.
ReplyDeleteAnother time, Lyonnaise des Eaux was doing work in our town and cut off the water. They parked their heavy equipment in the square in front of our house and the neighbor's but they didn't give us any warning, to get a few buckets ready. We went out and complained, as they were right there, and they said they had delivered letters of warning to all the houses, but as our houses were separated from the town by a bridge, they didn't give us letters. That time we went for three days without water. Luckily we have a tank for rainwater, and used that to flush the toilets.
We've had water outages several times over the years, but three days is excessive. You can't blame anybody when there's a burst water main or some other unforeseeable accident, but it would be nice to get some warning from the mairie when work causing outages is planned. Our outage this morning didn't last more that two hours.
ReplyDeleteI spoke too soon. The water just went off again. Walt was getting ready to get into the shower. It's good that he wasn't in there and all soaped up when it cut off this time. I don't think he would have enjoyed a cold rainwater rinse!
ReplyDeleteHow tiresome to have the water go on and off without notice ! It doesn't make for a calm relaxing shower when you do get to take one, with the fear the water will stop suddenly.
ReplyDeleteI have artichoke jealousy. I don't even eat them that often but to have them growing like that !! I am jealous, I just love the look of them :)
They turn into pretty purple flowers by the end of summer. See my comment to Evelyn regarding the shower contingencies.
DeleteLove seeing your artichokes- I hope they taste good! I guess you could have used your rain barrel for water for your coffee this morning. I am worthless before my first cup of coffee. Is there a name for a rainy summer like canicule if for a heat wave?
ReplyDeleteNo name besides "misery" for this kind of weather at this time of year, as far as I know. We keep a six-pack of 1.5-liter bottles of mineral water down in the cellar for situations like the one this morning. The water came back on again before noon. Walt filled a big bucket with hot water before he got into the shower, to rinse off with -- just in case.
DeleteThat was smart! We once went trough a car wash, got the car all soaped up, and then their water system broke... No way to rinse off! It would certainly be worse to be a person all covered with suds :)
DeleteRight here right now, that wouldn't be a big problem. Wait five minutes and rain would rinse the car. Cars don't seem to mind a cold rainwater dowsing.
DeleteIn our NYC Chinatown, one can purchase snow pea greens this time of year for a song. I buy them all the time and add them to salads or just saute with garlic. Since you have them in your garden, you might want to give them a try (if you have not already done so :) ) Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteRest assured that we are enjoying snow peas in a range of stir-fries. That was the point of planting them, after all. I'll try them simply sauteed with garlic.
DeleteGlad to see your veggie garden looks about the same as mine except for my courhgette plants that have developed gigantic leaves and are risking overtaking the aubergines but still have no flowers! What a bother with the on and off of the water, hopefully all restored by now.
ReplyDeleteLeft a comment on your blog. Yes, water is now flowing.
DeleteMaybe the water Gods are on strike, in sympathy with all the other strikers.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is still way ahead of mine. We've had lots of bright, sunny weather this Spring, but hey, it's still Maine. Snow peas are probably several weeks away.
We hope still to get some tomatoes and haricots verts, among other crops, by September. Hope you get some too.
DeleteI planted haricots verts shortly after getting back from France in April, and they're doing well but probably have close to a month to go. Tomatoes take forever here, but I'm hopeful they'll do well. Last year was a disaster for my tomatoes and basil because of hail, something you're familiar with in the Loire Valley. Meanwhile, I've already harvested my first round of radishes and lots of arugula and mixed greens. They like the climate here.
DeleteIt's interesting that we are in fact 300 miles north of where you live in Maine you but have a very different climate. We haven't really had hail to deal with here in the Saint-Aignan area in the 13 years we've lived here. Only once did we see a few hailstones fall in our back yard, and it was over in a flash. We've been lucky. I'm trying to grow new (for me) varieties of kale this year and hoping for a good crop. This spring, our radishes succumbed to the wet conditions and were mostly eaten by snails. They were a disappointment.
DeleteSeveral years ago we rented a gite in the Northern Rhone, and were discussing the trees/shrubs and the climate with the gite owner. When we told her what our climate was like, she said we must be much further north. When we told her that we weren't, she said that we must then live at a high elevation. We said no, we're at sea level. At that point she said she didn't understand why our climate was so much colder.
DeleteIt is hard to grasp the differences in climate. Maritime vs. continental influences, and then the Gulf Stream off the European coast bringing warm air over here from North Carolina and points south. Without that, it would be a different story.
DeleteYour artichokes have done better than ours here in coastal California...drought has resulted in many fields going fallow. Better this past winter, though, and hoping for more wet weather next winter. Amazingly, my tomatoes are doing better than my artichokes this year!
ReplyDeleteHope you get a lot of tomatoes. I saw in the Chron that you might be having some rain this week, with snow up in the northern Sierra. Strange.
DeleteI wonder what causes one artichoke to be so gloriously large and the other small? Are they in different locations, or next to each other?
ReplyDeleteThe two artichoke plants are next to each other, meybe 18 inches apart. Who knows why one has grown so large and the other has stayed small...
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