I love seeing the progression of cherry tomato development along a stem.
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| Heirloom cherry tomato Gardener's Delight Lycopersicon lycopersicum |
This week, we've been eating lots of cherry tomatoes, which I love. Lately I've found myself even eating a few with breakfast, which has been surprisingly satisfying.
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| Ready-to-eat cherry tomatoes (Lycopersicon lycopersicum) |
It's a good thing I like cherry tomatoes so much, because our Brandywine tomatoes have a while to go before they'll be ripe.
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| Brandywine tomato |
Thanks to our trees, we have a lot of shade in our garden...
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| Shagbark hickory trees (Carya ovata) and others, shading the garden |
so sun-loving crops (such as those Brandywine tomatoes, eggplant, squash, and other large-fruited crops) take longer to mature. However, we have enough sun for smaller fruits, and we've been harvesting lots of cherry tomatoes and green beans. The strawberries have also had a good year.
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| Green beans, cherry tomatoes and strawberries |
The butternut squash that I planted also has a long way to go. I always feel lucky if I get to harvest a few squash before the fall frost.
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| The tiny butternut squash is hidden under the leaves |
We often have a few surprise volunteer cucurbits growing from our compost. I always let a few of them grow. Last year, I thought a cucurbit growing from compost in a raised bed was going to be a pumpkin, but it ended up being a delicious cantaloupe!
This year I am letting a volunteer cucurbit grow right out of one of my compost bins. It looks like it might be a pumpkin, but maybe it will end up being a cantaloupe.
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| Volunteer growing out of the compost bin. The dark-green fruit is against the bin. |
The parsley and chives continue to thrive. We harvested a basketful of parsley
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| Parsley |
added some of our garden chives and garlic, and my husband made some delicious red quinoa tabouli (with the help of a farmer's market yellow heirloom tomato).
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| Quinoa tabouli salad |
Lovely harvests. I love surprise harvests. This year mine was yellow mustard seed. I grow it in the garden every year, but it decided to sprout all through the top of the compost. Of course that meant I couldn't use that particular bin, but that was OK.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's one of the things I love about gardening. There are always surprises! I've never grown yellow mustard, but sounds fun.I guess that's one more reason to have a few compost bins at all times.
DeleteYour tomatoes are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
DeleteThis year I finally managed to achieve a harvestable parsley crop and so far I've experimented with two different tabouli recipes. My second attempt featured more parsley and less quinoa and tastes very close to the restauarant stuff. Very pleased. I bet red quinoa would look fabulous amongst all that green. Does it taste different then the beige quinoa?
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are harvesting parsley and making tabouli too! When mixed into tabouli, the red quiona tasted the same to me as beige quiona. It definitely perks up a plate to use the red quinoa!
DeleteYou husband made some good looking red quinoa tabouli. Do you have the recipe?
ReplyDelete