An Embarrassment of Tomatoes

Shortly after completing my last tomato post, and smugly satisfied at using almost all my outstanding garden tomatoes, I went out to water my plants.

And came back in with another large bowl full.

Now, don't get me wrong. What with the advent of today's cool grey misty rain, it's clear that tomato season is coming to an end. I'm going to treasure all these little gems, and try not to waste any due to laziness or poor dinner planning.

Tomato Envy

Lately it's all I can do to stay on top of eating all the tomatoes that are being thrown at me. Not only are they cheap and fabulous in the stores and farmers markets, but my mom and my cousin's boyfriend are constantly on me to eat the overflow tomatoes from their gardens, and my own dear heritage plant even seems ready to deliver a ripe tomato in the next couple days. ohhhhh yeah baby!

Come with me now, on a tomato tour around the garden and kitchen:

These little yellow gems are from Dan's garden. He has the Italian touch with tomatoes, and all his plants are putting out truly sickening amounts of fruit. (bastard!) But in his favour, he has given me carte blanche to take whatever I want, especially the yellow ones, which he doesn't much like, and were mostly rotting on the plant. The red beauty in the upper left corner is one of my mother's tomatoes, waiting patiently to be used in something delicious.

These guys were just a little bit past their prime, and did not make the cut for breakfast. Back to the compost for you, boys.

Sizzling up in some butter. mmmmm, delicious butter.

Aaand - breakfast. Sautee'd tomatoes, free range eggs, butter and cheesie toast. Amen. Please excuse the messy plating, I was in a rush to eat this awesome-smelling food. But I'm well aware that that kind of shit would not cut it in the real cheffy world.

And now, into the garden:

One of my mom's tomato plants - despite being left untended for like 5 weeks and having no trellis or support, this sprawling plant is producing dozens of big fat delicious tomatoes. Jealous!!

My little heritage plant is finally making some big tomatoes, but the weather is starting to turn, and I'm worried that they'll have to be harvested green.

But one or two of them will definitely be ripe in time. Some interesting pathogen growth on the one on the right there.

Even if I don't get a single other ripe tomato, I feel that this guy here, glowing orange and just about ready to be plucked, will totally have been worth it.

Bright Harvest

Fruits of evil, fruits of eeevilllll!

No, seriously though... I am pleased to announce that my pepper plant's second set of peppers has now commenced the ripening!!! (the first round having been destroyed by some evil little squirrels)

I have faith that I'll be able to get all of these peppers fully ripe before autumnal rains potentially wilt this little plant. Two of them look pretty much ready to go anytime I want them.

Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to make with them once they're harvested. mwahahahahahaha!

My first tiny tomato

I'll be the first to admit, lots of the things I've grown this year haven't produced anything in the way of crops. I bought this tomato plant out of peer pressure, but any tomato plants my mom ever tried to grow usually end up getting some kind of vascular wilt and passing on before producing any tomatoes. My hopes were anything but high. So imagine my very great surprise, when after 3 fruitless little cymes of flowers, I saw the above little tomato poking out from the calyx! Success at last!!


This is one of the first two cucumbers I've managed to grow from my 2 cucumber plants. The bees aren't doing much in the way of pollinating this year, and I finally managed to get this guy to start ripening after hand-pollinating the flowers. It's still about ring-finger size, but I've got my eye on it. If the fungus that seems to be working its way up the plant gets anywhere near it, it'll be harvested before you can say "pickle".

I heart fennel

One of the most satisfying things about my new gardening experiences this year has been the fennel. You see here the biggest one that I have thus far harvested. I have several more in various degrees of plumping up. 

Perhaps I should explain. Until late last year, I was living in this ridiculous slum building in Strathcona, with no yard, no balcony and no opportunity for window boxes that did not immediately become prey to the various species of pests* that plagued us. 

My parents always used to garden back in the old house in Poco (TriCities Pride!), and I missed having a kitchen garden more than I realized. When we finally moved to a (relatively) pestless place with a patio, I immediately began accumulating pots and planning my garden. 

I picked up lots of seeds in the spring, mostly stuff I knew I could grow, like lettuce, carrots, arugula, peas, etc. And then I picked up some fennel seeds on a whim, because I freakin' love fennel, and I buy it all the time when it's in season. 

 

I don't really have much first hand gardening experience, and I had no idea that fennel would be so easy to grow. Easy to germinate the seeds, easy to maintain the seedlings, easy to protect from insects - really the only hard part has been resisting the urge to eat them before they get bigger. 

Somewhere along the way this pot of chives picked up a fennel sidekick. 

*Raccoons and pigeons in the ceiling, plus rats, mice, moths and flies