What could happen to an Old Fashioned?!

It's Tuesday, and as you've probably guessed from today's title, our gardening cocktail for the day is the Old Fashioned. Travis was kind enough to mix one for me before he left for work. I would give the recipe for it, but like most cocktails that I don't "invent" and (re)name myself (tequila cran-rise), I have no clue how it's made. I think it has rye whiskey, bitters, a sugar cube, and what looks like an orange peel. 

Some people go their entire lives without knowing what an Old Fashioned looks like sitting next to a mushroom

The drink was immortalized in the best scene of the classic ensemble comedy (classic in the sense that it's old, long, and that you need to be at least drunk to watch the whole thing in one sitting) It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

"Just press the button back there marked Booze..."

I always like to point out that Tuesdays are one of my days off, but, as of this week, all my days are days off. The semester has ended for me, and all the lab reports and final exams are graded. All that's left is my final office hour later this week where students who need an A to get into med-dental-nursing-grad school, but apparently didn't realize it until just now, beg me for a few extra points. I'm sure you, as a regular reader of this window into my mind that I call The Nearly Constant Gardener, know that they have virtually no chance unless they're cute (kidding!! -none of them have a chance).

The beginnings of a jalapeno

As I mentioned yesterday, it has been and is continuing to rain here. The plants are clearly pleased. My pepper plants (bell, jalapeno, and cayenne) have shot up several inches in the past two days. I've even got some baby peppers. The squirrels shouldn't be a problem when it comes to the hot peppers, unless the pepper spray squirrel repellent that I've been spraying on my tomatoes has desensitized them to capcaisin.

 

Of course, I have been on the continuous look-out for all of the aforementioned pests bent on lessening my gardening pleasure. I hit blogger pay dirt this morning on one of my Brussels sprouts. So many tiny little juvenile caterpillars where chowing down on the young leaves that I couldn't even pick them off individually. I ended up tearing off pieces of leaves with the highest caterpillar concentrations, collecting other stray caterpillars onto those leaf fragments, and tossing the hole pile into the chicken coop.

Dead caterpillars walking

A Super Sweet 100, tomato candy

You know I like to end on a high note so I would like to announce that the squirrels have been successfully kept at bay long enough for a few tomatoes to ripen. Here, we have a Super Sweet 100 cherry tomato nearly ready to harvest. These are among the best tomatoes to grow in Texas. They set fruit early and ripen quickly because it's so small. The fruit is incredibly sweet, as the name implies, and they are prodigious producers.