The heat wave has ended. Today was warm in the morning, hot in the afternoon, and cooled in the evening. No rain though, so Attila was busy watering the garden using collected rain water.
The highlight of our day… a rutabaga.
Vegetables of all kinds have become very expensive, including rutabagas. So this year, for the very first time, Attila planted rutabagas. Today he harvested our very first rutabaga.
It was the basis for our evening meal. Attila used 1/3 pound of ground beef, some onions, some olive oil, garden carrots, kohlrabi (frozen from last year), rutabaga, and the herbs cumin and rosemary. He cooked that all afternoon in the crockpot, and served it with home canned chili sauce. It is one of our favourite casseroles, and makes enough for two meals for two.
A harvested rutabaga passes for an exciting event around here.
Ain’t life grand!
Worldly
Weather
24°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Sunday 5 July 2026
Condition: Cloudy
Pressure: 101.7 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 23.9°C
Dew point: 13.1°C
Humidity: 51%
Wind: NNE 8 km
Quote
“Every moment of one’s existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.”
Norman Mailer
1923 – 2007
And thus a balance is maintained.
July 7, 2026
I just had to come back and add a rutabaga quote!
“It’s planting season in Hooterville, but Oliver doesn’t know what to grow. After testing the soil, he discovers that Hooterville is perfect for growing rutabagas. Rutabaga-planting fever takes over the local farmers.”
The Rutabaga Story
Episode aired Mar 20, 1968
Eva Gabor and Pat Buttram in Green Acres (1965)
That sounds like a tasty meal! We had a mixed stir fry the other day too, though we didn’t grow our own veggies.
Not to be picky, but isn’t that a turnip? White and purple? My family came from farmer stock and our rutabagas were always tan/yellow.
“Turnips are usually tennis-ball sized with smooth skin (often white on the bottom and purple at the top). Rutabagas are larger, heavier, and sport a creamy yellow-tan skin.” Google
Teri, stir fries make a great meal! We buy some of our vegetables from the grocery store, right now cucumbers and onions mostly. Our cucumbers haven’t done well the last couple of years, so we buy them from the store. Maybe this year will be different, they might do well this year.
You may well be correct on the rutabaga or turnip question. The seed packet said rutabaga. Maybe there are new varieties that don’t fit so easily into the heritage variety categories. The variety we planted was Laurentian Swede from McKenzie seeds.
Lol! When I look it up the pictures show a yellow/tan tinged turnip with a purple top. Some had bright purple tops and some had very faded purple tops. Only a few looked like the small pumpkin-sized tan rutabagas we have in our local grocery store. So, looks like rutabagas are in the eye of the beholder. 😉