More sweet potatoes

Auntie from up the hill brought more sweet potato seedlings which means I had to create two more long rows on the big field. That isn't such an ordeal except that the recent rains have saturated the clay-filled soil making it very heavy. My mother-in-law stood over the process like a warlord as I scooped up the soil into a mound, demanding that the mound be higher and wider and that I work faster. The mud sticks to the long hoe-like tool - we need Teflon coating - and requires an extra shake with each scoop. This wasn't easy. I rolled the plastic down the row and secured it with globs of mud, then made the slits and planted fifty more sweet potato plants. Yum yum.

While I was out there, I picked up a couple of green pumpkins, kabocha, from the slope. I never can tell if they are ready because they are green. Obachan likes everything premature. She doesn't care if the inside is only pale yellow instead of rich orange. I do care. I like ripe vegetables and fruits.

She came over the other day and picked my tomatoes- yes, MY tomatoes and handed them to me as if I were incapable of picking my own! She picks them when they are hard and pale pink. I want sun-ripened fresh off the vine freakin' tomatoes - if I wanted hard pale pink tomatoes I would go to the supermarket and pay a dollar a piece for them. Hello?! Why am I growing them?

Everything is underripe except for melons - these people like overripe mushy melons. She doesn't pick the watermelons until they are liquified inside. They eat their green melons mushy. Now melons should be somewhat firm and juicy sweet, right? What is it around here that we can't have fruit and vegetables at the right time?

I asked my hubbie to bring me a beer. I've had enough of this day. He stops at the store on the way home and buys unrefrigerated beer. They sell it in the cool section- why would he bring me warm beer? Must be the same logic as eating an overripe melon or an underipe tomato. This family!