Basque Day

Every year in July, the Basque block in Boise hosts a Basque festival, the San Inazio Festival to honor St. Ignatius of Loyola, the patron saint of the Basques. St. Ignatius of Loyola was the Spanish founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He was canonized in 1622 and declared patron of spiritual exercises and retreats by Pius XI. His feast day is July 31.

Late this morning, I decided to check out the Basque festival before it got too hot. Then I came home and watched the film, The Way. I knew The Way was about a pilgrimage, but I had no idea it was a pilgrimage through the Basque country. That was weird.

As intended, I got there in time to watch the kids dance,

The two girls in blue that were closest to me were having a great time, despite wearing all those clothes, hats, stockings, and petticoats in the 90 degree heat. Here are some of the littlest ones taking a water break,

You have to love the hats. The cooks had just finished adding the shrimp to the paella and were now adding mussels,

They said it was about 15 minutes away from being ready and it smelled awesome, but it was too hot to imagine eating any of it. Those Basques seem to know how to cook for a crowd.

Here is last Monday and Friday's harvest,

I had a heck of a time trying to learn about my broccoli, so I think I will save my pictures and write a review. My broccoli is a sprouting broccoli, you mostly see a purple variety, but mine is green. It does not grow compact like the broccoli you see in the store, and the sprouts are big. I found hardly anything to tell me when it is ready to pick. I found something that said I can pick when the outside sprouts are loose, but the center is still compact, which some of mine were, so I decided to just pick a few branches. Maybe once I pick the center sprouts some side ones will grow, otherwise there really is not much to eat on this big plant.

Broccoli is a perfect food, as are tomatoes, but I am not a huge fan. I steamed the broccoli I picked and it really was the best I ever had. So were the bush beans, which look like snap beans to me.

The strawberry plants sprouted the sorriest group of pea sized mangled strawberries in June and I was going to throw out the plant. Then it got another round of flowers, so decided to let it live. Now it has a new collection of berries, much bigger and better than the first round.

The tassel top on my corn seemed to be struggling to be a proper top. My neighbors have shorter corn, but their tassels have been proud tops for weeks. I tried to help mine, which I can barely reach, and all these seeds came down. Hey, corn isn't grown from seeds, corn grows from kernels off the ears. Did you know that one corn stalk is both the male and female plant? The male seeds from the top tassel sprinkle down to the female silk waiting at the base of the leaves, where they meet the stalk. If the tassel springs up and the seeds sprinkle down too soon, no corn. Mine had good timing, I can see at least three ears ready to grow. The female silk must be that same stringy stuff around the outside of the ear after you husk it, the stuff no one likes to have to clean off. Once the tassel sprinkles it's seeds, then it straightens up like a proud father.

Proper farm girls cannot be afraid of bees. They are all over the raspberry, the strawberry, all the vegetable flowers, and I've learned to water, prune, and harvest in harmony with the bees. I've been stung recently enough to remember how much it hurt, but I also know I would not have the bounty of my garden without them. Except maybe corn, corn doesn't need bees.