Squash and Garden Porn

We went down to my parent's house this past weekend for a Christmas party. When we left, my mom let me take along a couple of very cool winter squashes that were left over from fall decorations. I've wanted to get seeds for these varieties for a couple of years, and now I don't have to buy them. Woot!

Musquee de Provence: 120 days (C. moschata) These gorgeous, big flat pumpkins are shaped like a big wheel of cheese, and are heavily lobed and ribbed. The skin is a beautiful, rich brown color when ripe. The flesh is deep orange, thick and very fine flavored, fruit grow to 20 lbs. each. This is a traditional variety from southern France and makes a great variety for fall markets.

Rouge Vif D'Etampes: (C. maxima) Most beautiful flattened and ribbed large fruit are a gorgeous deep red-orange. A very old French Heirloom, this was the most common pumpkin in the Central Market in Paris back in the 1880’s. The flesh is tasty in pies or baked. This one can also be picked small, like summer squash, and fried. It is a good yielder too.

The descriptions for those squash come from Baker Creek Seed Co. I mention them because they are related to the second part of this post's title. Last week I got the 2012 Baker Creek Seed catalog. The fact that they send this out for free boggles my mind. It's chock full of amazing photographs of all sorts of cool heirloom and open-pollinated fruits, vegetables, and flowers. 61 of the catalog's 192 pages are full page photos! Jere Gettle (who frequently dresses like Gene Autry on acid) runs a great company, and year after year they put out a catalog that is good enough to be a coffee table book. If you've never bought anything from them, give 'em a try this year.

Homesteading as art

Being an artist/art teacher by trade, I have the opportunity to create and be surrounded by beautiful drawings and paintings and sculpture all the time. But while fine art is something that I love, I think that the creative spark that resides in all people extends far beyond paintbrushes and pencils. One of my favorite quotes comes from Dada artist Marcel Duchamp, and I think it distills nicely what the creative spirit is all about:

"It's not what you see that is art, art is the gap"

Art is recognition, the ability to make connections between things and ideas, to appreciate beauty in the world around us. And when it comes to beauty, a functioning homestead (or 'burbstead) is resplendent with it. Humans have a pretty hard time holding a candle to nature's ability to create things of aesthetic value. What we do have a knack for, if only we slow down and open our senses a bit, is the ability to appreciate the beauty - to see the gap. Gardens, kitchens, farms, markets, forests, all of them contain a wealth of sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and textures. Our job is merely to care for the world that makes them all possible.

So I leave you with a picture of something that caught my eye this morning as I was waterig the garden. For my money, an okra blossom is probably the prettiest flower that will show up in a vegetable garden. Squash vines have big, showy, bright orange cones, and melons, tomatoes, and cucumbers are covered with petite yellow ones; but an okra plant puts out a real flower with petals. They are the most subtle shade of pale greenish yellow, almost white. This contrasts wonderfully with the dark, rich, blood-red center, black stamen, and intense yellow orange pollen grains. Simply beautiful, especially when situated amongst the large, sap green stalks and leaves of the plant. Enjoy!