You may recall my giddiness earlier this summer, when the zucchini I thought would never bloom turned out to be rogue cantaloupe and butternut squash, sprung forth from the compost we'd added to our soil. For what it's worth, the zucchini never grew, but we ended up with two tasty cantaloupe -- harvested long ago -- and three chubby butternut squash, one of which is helping me fight a cold as we speak in the form of a fragrant soup.
We've had a nice, prolonged summer in Chicago, tricking our tomatoes into continued yields. Still, it's time to start thinking about putting the garden to bed.
But wait, not so fast! As I harvested a large bowl of cherry tomatoes yesterday, I nearly tripped over the little guy above, making a surprise appearance.
If his earlier bretheren are any indication, cantaloupe takes a loooong time to ripen. But the quickness of this cameo may hint at some rare will to live. Maybe he'll mature rapidly, racing the frost we're sure to see by the end of October.
I'll keep you posted on his development, of course, but in the meantime, I ask for your collective good will -- rooting for daily growth visible to the naked eye, for a breakneck transformation from fragile green skin to mottled brown husk. If this cantaloupe makes it, I promise to share.
3 comments:
Hope your cantaloupe makes it before frost! I also feel like I've been tricking Mother Nature--our basil plants are still lush and full of leaves. I figured I'd better harvest what was left a couple weeks ago, but never got around to it, and they're still going! But I don't want to push my luck too long: it would be sad to miss the chance to put more pesto in the freezer to trot out as a reminder of summer sometime next winter.
Rose, I had zero luck with basil this year. I'm starting to think I do better with the vegetables I don't intend to plant :-).
Still, on that front, can't entirely complain.
go cantaloupe go!
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