Tomato-phobia

By this time of year, we are almost afraid to go out in the garden and see what's ripe. Karen dubbed it "tomato-phobia" and we all suffer from it! Within the last week, I picked these lovely Tumbling Tigers from the backyard.

And these at the farm.

And more from the backyard.

And more from the farm.

And more from the backyard! Arrrgh! This shot shows three nice examples of the yellow varieties I am trialing to replace the Tangies. The three stripey ones in the front right are Hillbillies. These put out some good tomatoes after the heat wave wrecked the early fruits. Center back is Gold Medal, and that's a beautiful tomato. In the center front is Persimmon, and you can see why it's called that, as it looks just like one. The ones on the back left are Tangies, and ... well... they may be hybrid and sourced from a non-safe-seed-pledge company, but dang, they are a really nice reliable tomato.

What do you do with this many tomatoes? Well I've been drying the small ones daily, and making sauce as much as I can. I tried baking the sauce in the convection oven rather than letting it simmer on the stove. This worked pretty well because I just set it up, went to the farm, and came back to find it nicely thickened up.

Oh, and did I mention zucchinis? We had a couple... I made stuffed zucchinis, having been inspired by the ones Delina brought over on block day.

This was a truely magnificent Cosmonaut Volkov. This variety turned out to be a real winner.

One slice dominates a BLT. This is my homemade wheat bread, so it's a nice big slice of bread, but it can barely hold the tomato.

We're also getting the first of the drying beans coming ripe. The Jacob's Cattle came first; they were ready last week. I picked the Cannelini yesterday, and they are just done.

Jacob's Cattle are pretty beans, and they did well. We will definitely replant next year.

Last Friday, we did another installment of our beer a day tasting. This was the Rogue Black IPA, "Daddy's Little Helper." It was nice and hoppy, with lots of roasty notes. We also had zucchini relish with crackers and cream cheese, and tiny cherry pies, made with the homemade cherry jam from Delina's friends cherries. All this makes Melinda happy.

And if it's summer, it's time to be farming for fall, so I'm already hard at work getting the fall crops going. The transplants in 5a are thriving. We've already removed the shade cloth.

Last weekend I got 6a planted. These transplants were the cabbage and Apollo broccoli from flat B.We left the basil on the side (although we're not exactly short of basil).

Rick and Buddy took out the trellising in 7b, and I pulled up the last of the tomatillos and borage. We'd been using this row mostly to grow borage for the chickens, and we've been feeding them a plant or two a day.

Then we put the chickens on it to do their work. You can see how the first half of 6b is bare; that's where I pulled up the Jacob's cattle, and I hadn't pulled the Cannelinis yet. I dug and Rick composted yesterday, so I should be able to plant 7b today with more broccoli.

Also over the weekend, Rick got more paneling put up in the bar.

I also got some more seeds started. I'm sorta behind, because I need to get more starts in the ground so I can refill the flats! Since I transplanted flat a (into row 5a) I replanted it with mostly Apollo broccoli (rows 1-5) then 6-7 Fiesta, 8-9 Thompson, and 10 Tenderheart. Did this last Tuesday, 7-30.

Then last Thursday, 8-1, I planted flat F in lettuce. 1-2 Green Towers, 3-4 Continuity Butterhead, 5-6 Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed, 7-8 Montecito, and 9-10 Blushed Icy Oak. These had sprouted as of yesterday!

Also, this is right in the midst of peach season, which started a couple weeks ago and has almost run its course. The harvest was light this year, but the tree is healthy, and the fruit is delicious. We must remember to spray it again at the proper time.

Final bonus image: our friend the turtle again. We always look for him on our walks.