Garden Wars!!! (Week 4)
June 16, 2010
Can you say “landslide”?
In an unprecedented margin of victory (logged very scientifically by a series of tally marks scribbled on our editor’s desk calendar), John Sarvay was the clear winner in last week’s battle. It seems Richmond really loves hydrangeas, what can we say?
For those of you new to Garden Wars, here’s the deal…
John Sarvay (of Floricane and Buttermilk & Molasses), Ryan Smartt (of ConnectRichmond), and Scott Pharr (of PharrOut and RVANews) face off each week as they showcase images of their agricultural efforts, complete with clever(ish) captions. Then you, the readers, decide who wins. Whoever has won the most number of weeks out of the three-month run of this series will be treated to a meal by the losers.
Our gardeners are currently neck and neck and neck:
Sarvay: 1
Pharr: 1
Smartt: 1
Who will break the tie this week? YOU DECIDE!
Sarvay
A dream fulfilled. Thea’s insane food allergies meant that she’s already eaten her weight in green beans over the past year. She was excited to play with the three pounds of green beans we pulled from the garden this weekend. The rubber duckie was not part of this week’s haul.
A dream deferred. Two Garden War contestants will be green with envy when the first photo of a fully ripe, red tomato appears. Like a certain Smartt girl, Thea received a lesson in appropriate picking times this weekend – and then I let her run off to play with her handful of green tomatoes in her wading pool.
A dream denied. Let’s not pretend that gardening is all beauty and life. For five years, we’ve failed in attempts to grow sunflowers – the damn squirrels usually eat the initial sprouts. This time, they hauled off the entire flower and left us with yellowed stalks.
Pharr
Welcoming the newest member to the family. The Cucumber. My whole family waits with great mouth watering expectations. (I know what you are thinking, FINALLY Scott posts something other than squash. Well…)
Just shy of last weeks record with 17 this week, I’m now bartering with Smartt and Sarvay for peppers and hydrangeas.
Sarvay’s flowers are pretty and all (congrats on the win), but do they taste good? From way way left field, I present to you Beer Battered Squash Flowers, stuffed with a Fetta and Cream Cheese filling (recipe).
Smartt
See that funky little oval-shapped thingy with the green dots behind the yellow flower? Yeah, that thingy. CUCUMBER!
Sometimes a 3-year-old has to stop and smell the Black Eyed Susans. She already stopped to smell the roses in the background.
It’s an oxymoron, my friends. The tiniest Big Bertha Pepper in the world.
Ok, readers, time to cast your votes for this week’s winner in the comments. WHOSE GREENS WILL REIGN SUPREME?
(Leave your vote in the comments.)
37 Responses to “Garden Wars!!! (Week 4)”
1. AM Grohs says:
Pharr…really want those Beer Battered Squash Flowers…sounds amazing!
on June 16th, 2010 at 7:50 am
2. Sam says:
While I am very, very tempted to vote for anything that has the word “beer” in it, my vote goes to Sarvay for shamelessly buying my vote with surplus of his delicious green bean harvest.
on June 16th, 2010 at 8:19 am
3. John says:
Ryan’s last photo snagged my vote.
on June 16th, 2010 at 8:42 am
4. Mary says:
Sarvay
on June 16th, 2010 at 8:43 am
5. Brandon says:
I vote for Sarvay. Are you kidding? Where the hell are my green beans! All have are leaves! He’s got everyone in town beat.
on June 16th, 2010 at 9:26 am
6. Lauren says:
I’m going to go with Sarvay this week just for the green bean pile. Although I have had some of the Pharr squash and they are mighty tasty!
on June 16th, 2010 at 9:27 am
7. wren says:
Pharr for the beer battered squash flowers. Wow!
on June 16th, 2010 at 9:28 am
8. Ed/Pat says:
Sarvay. A sliding board of green beans; what will you come up with next??????
on June 16th, 2010 at 9:29 am
9. Maggi says:
Sarvay, for the honesty of it all. I ate a few miniature tomatoes while watering my garden yesterday, then dined on the last of the zucchini, my plants having apparently been attacked by something evil.
on June 16th, 2010 at 9:30 am
10. Mollee says:
I vote Pharr for providing a mouth-watering recipe. Also, it looks like his cucumber plants are farther along.
on June 16th, 2010 at 9:33 am
11. lindsey says:
sarvay for that mountain of green beans, but pharr is a close second. thanks for the recipe!!
on June 16th, 2010 at 9:59 am
12. Carrie says:
Pharr…I’m really wanting to try those squash flowers. Look delish!
on June 16th, 2010 at 10:08 am
13. Renee says:
Sarvay. Not only are the green beans fantastic, but the realism in his quest for sunflowers is touching (and so true!).
on June 16th, 2010 at 10:25 am
14. John says:
Lauren, if you get fired for voting for me, give me a call. I need someone to handle my business development for Floricane…
on June 16th, 2010 at 10:30 am
15. Eric says:
Pharr for that recipe. Who knew you could eat squash flowers.
on June 16th, 2010 at 10:55 am
16. Nicole says:
Very good showings this week! It’s hard to pick but this week my vote goes to Smartt.
on June 16th, 2010 at 11:55 am
17. Scott Pharr says:
Guys I’m really proud of my attempt to eat flowers stuffed with Cheese. I vote for me. That’s right, I’m selfish.
But dude, sunflowers!? Props to Sarvay for that one.
on June 16th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
18. Lindsay says:
Pharr, for turning once-pretty flowers into tasty homemade (and veganizable – that’s a word now) bar food! Also for the overachieving baby cuke. Mine are still the size of the Smartts’, so I’m jealous.
on June 16th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
19. Chairman Brando says:
My mom used to grow sunflowers. In the woods. With deer everywhere. I can’t accept squirrels as an excuse.
Pharr FTW!!
on June 16th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
20. Justin Smith says:
Pharr for the cute kid/Shrek photo.
+ I have to vote for anyone who includes beer in their description. I am after all the Godfather of National Beer Day.
http://www.examiner.com/x-383-Colorado-Springs-Craft-Beer-Examiner~y2010m4d7-Happy-days-are-here-again
on June 16th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
21. Shannon says:
I go with Pharr for the recipe and the cute kid with ears!
on June 16th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
22. Jennie says:
Sigh. It’s tough. But I love the creativity behind the beer battered squash flower thingys. I vote Pharr.
on June 16th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
23. Ryan Smartt says:
Pharr, cut it out with these pornographic vegetable shots.
on June 16th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
24. Jonah Holland says:
Sarvay. Because green beans as toys beats it all.
…..
I should you parents of young children now that if you continue to let your young’ns love vegetables as much as mine do, they will be ridiculed at school when they bring peas, broccoli, kohlrabi, edamame, green beans and cauliflower to school raw in their lunch….just because they love it. And their mom lets them.
Plus they may have the added bonus of having every kid in school think that vegetarian means you can’t eat food coloring and high-fructose corn syrup.
on June 16th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
25. Catherine says:
I was going to go with Sarvay until I saw the dead sunflower. Pharr wins my vote this week with that cucumber shot.
on June 16th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
26. Avery says:
Beer-battered squash flowers sound amazing!
But my vote is Sarvay for the landslide of green beans (how does he do it? My bean plants are still just leaves!). Although the sunflower pic has made me fear for the life of my not-yet-flowering sunflowers….
on June 17th, 2010 at 8:25 am
27. Trina Willard says:
I’d like to commend all three contenders for using their children for maximum impact – too bad they are all so adorable that it makes for a tough decision. However, I’m going to have to give this one to Sarvay. How do you vote against a rubber ducky? And it appears to be the closest thing to a garden gnome that I am going to see during this competition.
on June 17th, 2010 at 11:48 am
28. Lisa says:
Pharr gets my vote. The squash horns on Halle and the recipe for fried squash flowers wins it for me!
on June 17th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
29. Kate Hall says:
Sarvay. The green beans and duckie. . .it just rocks.
on June 17th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
30. CSB says:
Smartt is disqualified for not knowing the difference between coreopsis and rudbeckia. Gardener fail.
A quick primer:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=coreopsis
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=rudbeckia
(AKA Tickseed & Black Eyed Susans, respectively.)
on June 17th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
31. Matt says:
Sarvay. I owe him big for that thing with those guys a couple of years ago.
on June 17th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
32. genevelyn says:
sarvay, for the 1,000 yrs of solitude meets power of postive thinking captions
on June 18th, 2010 at 12:33 am
33. Weather Dan says:
Scott Pharr’s gourds bring my vote to the yard.
on June 18th, 2010 at 7:52 am
34. Christi Pharr says:
Seriously, there is NO competition for Scott Pharr’s squash and zucchini plants!!! I have an ENTIRE vegetable drawer FILLED with those beautiful yellow and green things. And if that’s not enough, Scott Pharr’s fried squash flowers were DELICIOUS. I should know, I ate them :) 1 VOTE PHARR (ting)
on June 18th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
35. Jennafer says:
Pharr! Even though I did not taste your fried squash flowers…yet, I have had to hear Justin talk about them. Way to go Pharr.
on June 19th, 2010 at 1:14 am
36. Michael says:
Sarvay!
on June 22nd, 2010 at 11:38 am
37. Valerie Catrow says:
Thanks to everyone who voted! Looks like Pharr takes it this week, but not by much.
Check back tomorrow for Battle Numero 5.
on June 22nd, 2010 at 1:05 pm