Here Comes the Rain Again

What a contrast in weather compared to last week. I didn't mind what seemed like an endless summer, but I knew the party would end sometime soon. We're finally getting some light drizzle and my garden is trying to soak it all up.

I'm glad I took on harvesting every last tomato last week. It ended up being a larger project than I anticipated. I so many tomatoes a friend told me I should quit my job and become a tomato farmer. Not sure if that's in my future at the moment. As I picked tomatoes, I removed the plants from the beds getting them ready for winter. Here's a look at the harvest.

Grappoli d'Inverno--great for sauce and confit

Yellow Estonian Cherry--sunny cirtus flavored fruits good in salads

I hope you enjoyed these. Bookmark this page when you need a little sunshine this winter!

More tomatoes

All my worrying over my tomato crop was for nothing. I'm happy to say that I have a decent amount this year even though it's September. Better late than never!

I tried several new types this year including Estonian Yellow Cherry (EYC) and the Columbianum Wild Form (CWF). I found these through Adaptive Seeds.

The EYC have a sunny yellow color and have almost a citrus undertone to their flavor. After enjoying Sun Golds during lunch today, these lack depth in tomato flavor.

I gathered at least 30 of the CWF's. My son was helping me and said "We have enough tomatoes!" Unfortunately, I sliced and roasted them before I remembered to take their picture. Hey...I was hungry and it was dinner time! Straight off the vine, these are a tad mealy. It may be that I have skimped on water, but I've been stingy with watering other tomatoes before (ie: Black Cherry) and haven't had a problem. I acutally like stressing out tomatoes because it brings out their flavor.

Of course, I'm already thinking about what tomatoes I'll grow next year. I've enjoyed the Indigo Rose tomato from Let Us Farm. They grow the most gorgeous lettuce you've ever seen and have amazing tomatoes, too.

And it's been brought to my attention (and I should had known this--thank you readers!) that Sun Gold are a hybrid so the seed from the tomatoes will not come true. Read more on this forum. That's all the convincing I needed to gobble up all the ripe ones off the vine earlier today. Yum!

Hurry up and grow!

Right after the 4th of July, I start to panic over how well my veggies are growing. Mainly, I am freaking out that the plants aren't big enough nor do they seem to be growing vigorously either. Melodrama kicks in and I'm ruling out producing a single tomato this summer.

I fall into this pattern every year, and somehow I end up with a decent amount of veggies to pick from the garden. Although, I am still a little worried about the tomatoes.

I was relieved to finally see the Kew Blue pole beans and the Sugar Magnolia snap peas are twirling and twining up their bamboo trellises.

 

Looking at my tomatoes, I noticed my Estonian Yellow Cherry has tiny fruits starting. Yay! I still have a ton more floweres, but hopefully the warmer weather this week will help. 

Green but promising!

I harvested some Apollo broccoli last week and missed one. I snapped it off, leaving a long stem on it. I'm always a little intimidated by eating raw broccoli since it is usually tasteless (from the grocery store) or way too bitter (waiting too long to pick it). It was so sweeet! The ends are great snacking and the florets--the little flowers we eat--had just the right amount of spice.

Sorry this is blurry, but I polished it off right after I took the photo. Oops!

The next post I'm planning is all about cucubits--cucumbers and squash...