Harvest Monday

Wow, it is mid-August and this is all I brought in this week. What a late year. I think next weekend will begin the real tomato harvest. Pictured above are black cherry, black krim, super steak hybrid, sweet cherry 100 hybrid, dragon's tongue beans, rosa bianca eggplant, ping tung eggplant, and triple crown blackberries. 

I think the rosa bianca was a bit overdue. So far, all we've done is grill the eggplants as slices with olive oil, salt and pepper. The ping tung's are perfect for that. They have the best texture. I'm not sure how the rosa's will be used best. The black krims are awesome, and I love the black cherries. This is the first year that I am really eating tomatoes. I made a nice tomato salad with all the ones in the photo, cut them up in different ways and dressed them with fresh basil, oregano, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and a splash of balsamic. I also salted the tomatoes with a few pinches of sea salt in a colander over a bowl to draw excess moisture out. Oh, and my secret ingredient was a splash of white truffle oil. I love the stuff. The hybrid tom's skins are a bit too tough for me, but the heirlooms were made for this salad. I ate most of it before I thought to take a photo.

brandy wine ripening

This year I learned that my garden is very utilitarian and not very pretty. There are hoses everywhere, organic garden dust is the only pest control I use and is usually on everything, ugly power lines cross my backyard, and a lot of plants grow along our foundation of concrete with yellow plastic siding. It is really hard to get a nice shot. This year is particularly bad. Leaf miners have gotten to out of control and my plants look a bit sickly even though they are producing fine. The damn leaf miners hit Kyle's pumpkin box pretty hard. 

I dusted the plants thoroughly. Here is a 12 inch diameter pumpkin next to a dandelion. 

The triple crown thorn-less blackberries are ripening and never make it far from the plant if my mouth is anywhere around. Thanks for the plants Mom!

black cherry tomatoes on the vine

bee fun

baby pickle

more baby pickles

baby melon

The best part of the weekend seeing my baby dog have a fun date with her new friend Juliet. We went on a walk with Juliet and her very nice owner Michael. the two girls had a great time. 

Update: we got the power line fixed last week. We lost our biggest brandywine tomato, and our tomatillo plant was obliterated by the tree branch that fell on the garden. Things could have been worse.