mustard harvest

Processed the mustard seeds. The procedure, according to the internets: pick mostly-dry seed pods/branches (before the birds eat them all); let dry completely; thresh by crushing/mashing/stomping on them in/over something to catch the seeds; sift out the chaff; winnow any remaining chaff (preferably outside), either by gently blowing across it (for small amounts) or by pouring seeds and chaff from one container to another. I did it indoors, and about had a asthma attack from all the dust.

Mashing threshing with a potato masher, in a colander, set over our big stainless steel bowl:



Before winnowing:



Mustard seeds! I ended up with about a 1/4 cup.

visit to the new Santa Fe Botanical Garden location

The Santa Fe Botanical Garden has been working on their new garden up on Museum Hill, near my office. They had a free public open "house" this afternoon, so I walked over after work to check it out.









It was one of those perfect days.


[click for larger]

what’s blooming

Asters:



Garlic chives:



Maximilian sunflowers:



Roses:

update

Picked a bunch of tomatoes, they're still going strong.



The late rains we got made a lot of them crack. Robesons:







Sungolds:





Mustard, in the raised bed and picked:







Basil, gone to seed:



Thyme:



Over in the side bed, lots of Kuri squash, unearthed after the cleanup: