Ha! In Which I Take It All Back

All that whining and bellyaching paid off. In above average temperatures, that is. We've just had several weeks of 90 degree days. Who knew? Well, certainly not me. I have been recently heard predicting this to be a year with no days above 90 degrees. Again, hah! I guess anybody that wrong about the weather is instantly qualified to be a local TV news meteorologist.

I couldn't be happier about being so wrong. What a treat the last few weeks have been, even though all this sudden heat stunned some of the plants and necessitated much more watering. Many of the tomatoes that I feared were destined to become fried green tomatoes have become the buxom, ripe and ribald beauties that are the dreams of gardeners during the winter months.


















Here are a couple of the top performers this season. Caspian Pink, which I had never grown before and Pork Chop, which I had never heard of and bought on the charm of it's name alone. Both of these plants yielded lots and lots of big, juicy tomatoes.

And the Sungolds, of which I have 2 plants, have been in overdrive, producing buckets and buckets of the bite size orange candy.

So following a late summer that really wasn't much of a summer we end up with a beautiful Indian summer. I LOVE this time of year in the Pacific Northwest.

Particularly Uninspired

That's right, I haven't been posting much this "summer". It's August and we have yet to reach 90 degrees on any day of the year. And there are hints that fall is not far away. The days are beginning to get shorter and there is a cool in the air that I associate with autumn.

And no 90s in the near term forecast.

I know I should be able to find inspiration in a flower or a bud or some other botanical miracle, but I just don't have it this year. It's not a complete washout, there are fruits and vegetables in the garden, tons of beans, squash, but the really warm weather loving plants are just not getting what they need. Oh well.

















I have been enjoying these 2 Nicotiana plants that I got at the 3rd Annual Plant Exchange. They are beautiful and the blooms just keep on coming. And while most of the plants may be yearning for more intense heat I have 2 new favorites that seem to be thriving in these lackluster conditions.

Purple Orach and Soleil bush beans. The Orach is related to spinach and tastes very much like it. It produces big triangular leaves that have a gorgeous shimmery velvety underside. They are big enough to make lettuce rolls with whatever you fancy inside. And of course they are great for dressing up a salad. And it just looks so striking int the garden. Big hit, I will definitely be growing this again.

And the yellow Soleil bush beans are compact, but prolific. They have produced tons of slender, tender, straight beans. This another discovery I will look forward to growing again next year.

Not Too Shabby

For all of the complaining that has gone on about the weather this "summer", and I have done my fair share, it hasn't been as bad as we all thought. I have to admit I didn't think I would get this many ripe tomatoes. The star performer has been Black Krim, producing lots of beefy, juicy, luscious fruits.

Here are several at the bottom of this group shot, and one in the spotlight dance.











I've grown this variety previously, but not had much luck with it. I do love most of the tomatoes described as purple, dark, or black. They seem to have a real depth of flavor and good balanced acidity.

Among the other varieties I grew this year were Japanese Trifele, a gorgeous little pear shaped tom. Very prolific. Another called Polish Linguicia; a paste/sauce variety. The fruits on this plant are huge, but none are ripe yet. Also Aunt Ruby's German Green, which don't seem ripe when green, in fact they turn quite pink before they seem ready to eat. So maybe I didn't really get what was on the label. And Cuore di Bue, literally translated to Oxheart. These are big, beautiful pouch like tomatoes, but the yield has been disappointing; only a few pleated beach balls have appeared.

So that's the tomato roundup. A few weeks ago I didn't think we'd have anything but cherry tomatoes, but the bigger ones are ripening and I think we'll have good enough weather so that they won't all have to ripen on the kitchen counter.

A week ago I planted some salad greens and rapini. I also planted some Dutch White Clover as cover crop in some of the beds. Happily all of these seeds have come up and hopefully will get a good start before the weather turns cold. I hope I have done a better job of covering bare dirt this year than last.

Banking Food For The Off-Season

Today I harvested about 3 quarts of Sungold cherry tomatoes. I washed them, cut them in half and put them into small containers and popped them into the freezer. They are destined to be thawed on dim days and tossed with hot pasta, or stirred into risotto, or spun into salsa.

I also reaped about 2 quarts of blueberries. Washed and frozen too.

And since I have so much garlic this year, and so much of it was harvested a little too late, and was splitting apart, I decided to roast up a big pan full and hopefully freeze it for later use. As a sneak preview we schmeared some onto crusty baguette, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with coarse salt and pepper.

The garlic can be thawed and spread on bread, stirred into soups and sauces. This may turn out to be one of my best ideas ever. It's got to be better that dried out cloves before the new crop is ready to dig up.

And I trimmed all of the excess leaves off the tomato plants, along with any fruit that didn't look mature. I really just want the plants to ripen any exiting fruit.

But what I really need to do is plant some salad greens. I may have left it a little too late, but it's worth a try. Who knows what kind of weather the next few weeks will bring. If the rest of the summer is any indication it should be changeable and unpredictable. At least we can count on that.