Freezing dried food

Now, during the hottest period of the year, the trees and the plants need water every day. It is very time consuming. One of the things to do is to build an irrigation system by laying plastic tubes all over the place. It is then just a matter of opening the tap and closing it in time.

Mohamed has been flooding the garden several times, as he puts the water hose in 1 place and then leaves the water running while he does something else. He regularly forgets to close the tap. This caused at least 3 young trees to die. Too much water is not good neither !!!

The first melon presented itself as being ready to be eaten. Melons (and watermelons) come lose from the plant when they are ripe.

2 small watermelons just burst. It is probably due to them absorbing a lot of water and wanting to grow too quickly. The flesh was pink reddish and they were tasty, but not as sweet as the fully grown ones are. I have got new plants coming out. Decided to have watermelons late in the season.

A scarecrow as an addition to the plastic bags on the sunflowers seems to keep the birds away from the sunflowers. Although yesterday I saw 2 birds approaching the scarecrow (staying at a safe distance) while observing its reaction. I assume it won’t be long before they know it is not a real person. It looks quite realistic dressed in a black dress and white scarf.

This is a busy season kitchen wise. I’m using a traditional way to prepare food for the winter by drying courgettes and eggplants. Have to do this as the freezer compartment of my refrigerator is quite big, but doesn’t by far have the capacity of a stand alone freezer. Was disappointed when inquiring how to store the dried food. The answer was : put it in a plastic bag in the freezer. This was not done in the old days, of course, but they used to have problems with little bugs spoiling the dried food. The cold keeps them away.

I am also cooking meals and freezing them in. Plan to have 30 to 40 prepared meals in the freezer by the time winter comes around. It will be nice to eat homegrown tasty vegetables out of season.

These are the successes. There are some things to learn, however. I cannot manage to have flowers out of the seeds that I brought from Belgium. Are they getting too much water or not enough ? I don’t know.

Have managed to grow 3 salads, 3 zucchini plants (they still have to grow a lot) and green beans. Will put some more seeds in next month, after the worst heath.

I am now in the process of cleaning the showers and toilets in the garden thoroughly. We’ve got a beautiful sign outside in the street that I asked to cover up, because I don’t agree that the camping facilities are presentable yet. It is hard to get something done by Syrians these days. They are complaining it is too hot. Any excuse is good enough, I suppose. I’m working every day, but don’t need an excuse to work ;-)