August is typically pretty dry but a few monster storms with torrential downpours the last couple of weeks brought the river way up.
The rain has made the basil happy.
The heirlooms didn't do well with last year's heat so I caved in and got some hybrid Early Girls and Better Boys this year. They're passable, as are the heirloom Golden Eggs. My favorites are the dark ones in the picture: heirloom Black Cherries. Their flavor is incredibly complex and I'll grow them again. There's also an Old Time Tasty and an Abe Lincoln somewhere in the basket. I ate all the Amish Pastes that have ripened so far. The Cherokee Purples will be a couple more weeks. I love tomato season.
7+ quarts, cleaned and ready for pesto
It's finally tomato season!
The heirlooms didn't do well with last year's heat so I caved in and got some hybrid Early Girls and Better Boys this year. They're passable, as are the heirloom Golden Eggs. My favorites are the dark ones in the picture: heirloom Black Cherries. Their flavor is incredibly complex and I'll grow them again. There's also an Old Time Tasty and an Abe Lincoln somewhere in the basket. I ate all the Amish Pastes that have ripened so far. The Cherokee Purples will be a couple more weeks. I love tomato season.
7 comments:
HI Jain..I remember you showing the river last year and low it was...no worry this year!!
Basil,tomatoes...oh yum!! : }
The black cherry sounds interesting might have to try that !!
Hope your week goes well..
Grace
Love, love tomato season too!! I need to harvest many herbs. So much to do, so little time! Sorry about the mosquitoes at your pad. I'm so glad this place doesn't harbor them the way our place in Indiana did. Have a great week!
The torrential downpours here this summer have change our creeks enormously!
Our gardens are so alike in many ways, Jain...other than just the fence, harvesting the same, although you do grow a larger variety of tomatoes. Today I will be harvesting our first zucchini of the season. Enjoy your pesto!
The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm to which I belong has Black Cherry tomatoes this year; they ARE interesting. I also grew Abe Lincoln tomatoes in my garden for the first time, but they're not ripe yet--at least the ones the deer didn't get!
We've had a couple of rains this month—and they came down like gangbusters!—but didn't last long enough to do much of anything to the river. That is not a complaint. I'm happy with a shower here and there, so long as the sweltering heat of July stays away.
Your tomatoes look yummy. Love the old-fashioned, "real" varieties that taste so complex and delicious. I started a basil patch this year…so maybe next year I'll have enough to make some pesto.
Grizz, basil's an annual, so you'll have to start over next year, and thereafter. Sorry.
Funny, I thought this was a pretty mundane post but there are comments galore! Yay!
Grace, do try Black Cherries when you get a chance, they’re amazing.
Steve and Jennifer, time sure does move fast this time of year! I’m glad you’re not infested with skeeters, too, enjoy!
Enjoy your zucchinis, Wanda! I pulled my plants; all the zukes were rotting at half maturity. One plant was mush at the base so I’m thinking they got too much rain. I’m sad, but at least they’re plentiful from farmers’ market stands now. I froze pesto in flat slabs in sandwich bags, break off frozen chunks and eat it like a chocolate bar. I hope I have some left for cooking this winter!
Scott, I haven’t weighed in on my Abe Lincolns yet. I keep throwing them in a basket with all the others and haven’t bothered to sort them. My bad. I’ll eat the next ripe one at the vine and do a proper evaluation.
Grizz, we’ve had much cooler temps here this week; hope you have, too. It took me a while to figure it out, but the more you cut basil, the more it grows. I snip the leader just above two branching stems and the plant get bushier with every harvest. Viva la basil!
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