Digging Garlic, Frying Oysters

Already 4 PM here on the mountain. The weather has changed from sun and warm, to windy, to cloudy and black with minor sprinkles in between each change. It's still 53 degrees out and mighty warm for this time of year. When I drove down the road an hour ago the town truck followed me. It seemed odd that the driver should be riding around with the snow plow mounted on. Putting on the plow is a habitual thing and I guess you do it whether you will need it right away or not.

Last year I bought a snow plow for my pick-up truck. It was the first I ever owned although I have plowed snow before for other people using their vehicles. No more of that "get out and change the plow angle" with these new rigs. Everything is automatic from inside the cab with a little joystick affair attached to the dash. They do make another version with a joystick that sits on the seat next to you so you can pretend you're playing crash and burn video games while driving along. I bought the cheaper version at $4000 but never got much chance to use it last year as it hardly snowed. Gail said that buying it showed I know nothing about business as I could have hired half the town to plow the yard and still been ahead money wise. I'm betting I'll use it some before I leave Earth.

I bought some oysters today with plans to fry them up for supper. I like an ever-so-minute hint of garlic in the sauce--one of those "pull-it-through-the-pan-quickly-on-a-piece-of-string" affairs that leaves so little garlic flavor that you might not even notice it. Naturally the garlic I wanted was still in the garden and the shovels were in the shed put away for the winter.

I chased two red squirrels out of the shed and headed to the old potato patch to snag a few fresh cloves of garlic. Alex had planted some among his potatoes a few years ago when he tried without success to scare the deer away. The garlic grew and grew and reseeded itself in many other places. It wasn't a problem finding any to dig but for the life of me I don't remember the name and really don't care. I dug three clumps and got three different varieties. The most abundant was a creamy, mild one I like to use in my vegetable soup. That's probably the one I'll try tonight with the oysters. As I work away on the keyboard I can still smell the garlic even though I washed my hands several times.




I'm not keen on digging much of anything in the fall. That's why I no longer grow glads or dahlias, cannas, calla lilies or caladiums. I enjoy them all but don't want to be a fall digger. Tonight I won't think about flowers save for the nice mum adding decoration to the table. I'll fry up some oysters and some home fries, and I'll dip some zucchini slices in a tempura batter before they make it to the oil. Some sliced tomatoes and fresh basil accompanied by some smoked mozzarella slices from Cheese Traders in Burlington and we'll have a cholesterol packed meal no one could pass up. Spring water will keep us honest!

It's Friday and the big part of the week has ended. The sun is dropping quickly and before we eat it will be dark. Those oysters will be great!


From the mountain above Peacham Pond where energetic red squirrels don't seem to get old, slow or gray, and where they prefer running full tilt or eating to sitting still.

Gardening wishes from tomorrow's leaf raker,

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com