Before I left for Crete on September 15, I spent a great deal of my time gardening. I had a greenhouse built last fall – a long time dream – and I filled it with plants, some from long-time friend Marianne, who started her tomatoes in February. Florian made me three new raised beds – two outside the protection of a fence, and one within our fenced in area. I did everything I knew to bring the fruits of my labor to ripeness before I left, but except for the odd tomato, pepper and eggplant, I had to leave the bounty to my family, friends, and neighbors.
Of course I knew that I would share in an abundance of vegetables and flowers available throughout Crete – but I still would have liked to have had eaten some of my own home grown. In Heraklion, the main fruit and vegetable market is a sight to behold. Such abundance! And, every mile or so along many of the roads, you will see a small outdoor vegetable stand all with local produce. Coming in the fall this year, we are enjoying pomegranates and quince, yours for the picking as you walk along the mountain roads. The olives have another couple of months before harvest, but they’ve gone from green to black in the month we’ve been here. There are huge bunches of grapes hanging from vines begging to be picked.
You see many of the same flowers in parts of the US as you see here – bougainvillia, roses, bottlebrush, poppies, morning glories, etc. Of course at 7,000 feet where I live in Colorado, these are not to be seen, but at my kids’ home in LA, they are abundant. One new flower I discovered this year was the Cowpea, a species of the black eye pea (Vigna). It’s actually a type of herb, non-invasive, non-toxic. It’s a legume that has been used as forage for animals. The flowers are kidney shaped and as intricate as an orchid. Beautiful.
