harvests

thirty-eight days ago the corn crop behind the bug box stores was a field of green with upturned ears and shady rows...today the field has gone brown, the leaves have collapsed into the rows and the ears are pointing downward and prepared for harvest...which will be soon enough if the weather dries...the jerusalem artichoke in the back of my truck has run its season out as well so it was time to harvest...i had expected some smallish tubers because the "growth medium: in the back of my truck is fairly shallow and sunchokes don't like to set tubers in the light...fooled again by their relentlessness...not a huge harvest, however more than i expected...the root ball was packed and there were several large tubers hiding around the bed which i dug out...took them in...cleaned them up...almost three quarters of a pound...not bad for a truck garden.

truck garden in the rain

today's rain has added .7" of precipitation to the total from friday night into saturday morning ( so far..it is still raining as i type )which had put paid to the early august dry spell...and it is helping the jerusalem artichoke in the bed of my truck along too..it has received only rain as moisture...another challenge to its relentlessness...and it was looking a bit droopy up until this past weekend..now it is looking well...it has topped the cab of my truck and so when i am on the freeway it is routinely exposed to fifty-five mile an hour winds ( always drive the legal limit )...this has done some damage to the upper leaves on the plants..actually destroyed some...however the plant has responded with new growth lower tot he truck bed in more sheltered conditions..an old evolutionary response to exposed conditions no doubt..another couple of months before the grand uprooting and the search for tubers..until then it will continue to be pummeled...and the aerial bulbs from the walking onions have sprouted...time to plant.