Day 33 – Powdery Mildew

CSA Baskets from last week.

Yesterday was better than two days ago in terms of getting work done. Deep south got watered, squash got pyganic sprayed on it. I sprayed copper on all the tomato plants, we harvested, and ripped out half the snap peas because of what I think is even scarier than squash bugs – powdery mildew. Half our snap peas were dead or dying because they were covered in powdery mildew. Powdery mildew is an airborne disease, a fungus. It doesn’t need water to spread, in fact some sources say to use water to help get rid of it by spraying it on the foliage to wash the spores away. You can spray a fungicide (so I sprayed the copper fungicide on the rest of the peas which didn’t have the mildew as badly). Then, it turned out that the squash also had powdery mildew. I swear I saw it spreading before my very eyes. It’s awful. Entire plants dead nearly overnight. This shit spreads so fast! Today right after CSA harvest we are going out there with trash bags and pulling every powdery mildew squash plant. Today and tomorrow are my last days as garden manager for another few weeks!!! Thank god. Yesterday Denise picked up her parents from the airport so I made dinner for her. We had 3 roast chickens cooked vertical with cans up their butts filled with blueberries, sugar, salt, and white wine. HOLY SHIT. I’m never cooking a whole chicken horizontally again. Perfectly and golden. We also had string beans and baked potatoes. Then, Marion made blueberry pies. A gluten free one with a bean flour crust and a regular one. I had 2 slices. WOW. I was in such a food coma last night. Then, right before I went to sleep I got news that one of my closest friends is supposed to be moving to Portland, OR while I’m here in New Hampshire and I won’t get to see him. His brother told me, and I’m so devastated. I had been looking forward to this friend visiting with his girlfriend but a week or so ago found out they weren’t coming anymore because they are going on a roadtrip to Colorado for Burning Man. Now I find out that right after Burning Man he’s moving to Portland. I’m so upset about not seeing him. It makes me wish I were home even more.