We wait for it all year long, and now, finally, it is here. Tomato season!
I can have tomatoes three meals a day now if I want. And snacks! It's wonderful.
Tomato cheese toast for simplicity, or caprese salad - so simple, yet so satisfying. Or you could go a little fancier, and make a Margherita pizza, which is what we did for dinner tonight. I feel so blessed. I feel extravagant and wealthy - I have eight enormous pink brandywine tomatoes ripening on my table. (They're from my mom's house - I don't have any luck growing brandywines in my yard. I don't have enough sun.)
If you haven't had it before, caprese salad is one of summer's treats. It's best eaten when your tomatoes have gotten really ripe and sweet. Then, simply arrange slices of fresh mozzarella and ripe tomatoes (any kind) on a plate. Garnish with as much fresh sweet basil as you like, and other greens if you like. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. If you like a little tang for contrast, drizzle with a balsamic reduction, or aged balsamic vinegar. I've eaten many different versions of the caprese salad, and enjoyed them all.
Happy tomato season!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Labor over Labor day
Well, what can I say? The school year has started, and I am no longer footloose and fancy free. Instead, it's back to the school routine, with work, work, work being the name of the game. But of course, it is always bittersweet...even though I complain about getting back to my normal work schedule, I do really enjoy seeing my colleagues and students again, and meeting this year's group of new students.
In the mean time, the summer has been better than last year. June was colder and wetter than we'd have liked, but we had a nice hot 4th of July. Of course, then much of July was unseasonably cool, too. But August has been pretty nice. I have actually gathered tomatoes - hurray! Admittedly, most of them have been from my mom's plants. My pride and joy this summer are two Buran sweet pepper plants that I picked up (in June) at the Hood River farmer's market. I've never had any success with peppers, but I thought I'd try again. Well, wonder of wonders, my plants are loaded with peppers, and one of them is even turning red! I'm so excited! I hope they taste good.
This summer has been a busy one in the yard - we replaced part of our fence (we did it ourselves), but now we need to finish a couple of short bits on it. Luckily, we have this long weekend ahead of us. I hope we finish!
In the mean time, the summer has been better than last year. June was colder and wetter than we'd have liked, but we had a nice hot 4th of July. Of course, then much of July was unseasonably cool, too. But August has been pretty nice. I have actually gathered tomatoes - hurray! Admittedly, most of them have been from my mom's plants. My pride and joy this summer are two Buran sweet pepper plants that I picked up (in June) at the Hood River farmer's market. I've never had any success with peppers, but I thought I'd try again. Well, wonder of wonders, my plants are loaded with peppers, and one of them is even turning red! I'm so excited! I hope they taste good.
This summer has been a busy one in the yard - we replaced part of our fence (we did it ourselves), but now we need to finish a couple of short bits on it. Luckily, we have this long weekend ahead of us. I hope we finish!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Rainy June
I wore my coat to work this morning. It seems a little ridiculous at this point, but there it is. Last weekend was pretty warm, though, and the garden shows it - the pak choi quadroupled in size while I was out of town! It was lovely to return from a weekend away to find my tomato plants all peering out from over the walls of water, rather than hunkering down behind them.
The other exciting news is that we have chicks again! Mimi (a wheaten marans hen) decided a month ago that she was ready to set, so I put her into the shed with Arnold and Elagarn (the banties) and six eggs, and let her set. It looks like we only had a 50% gestation rate, but I just gave her six eggs at random, and some of them might not have been fertile. I've only seen two chicks so far, but she's been pretty cagey about letting them out from under her wings. That's not a figure of speech, by the way - a hen really does shelter her chicks under her body, and the little peepers peek out from between her feathers...if she lets them! Mamas are pretty protective.
Despite the cooler-than-ideal weather I'm still ready to say that this June is better than last year's June, and I have high hopes for the summer. Indeed - I'm hoping to get ripe tomatoes before October this year.
The other exciting news is that we have chicks again! Mimi (a wheaten marans hen) decided a month ago that she was ready to set, so I put her into the shed with Arnold and Elagarn (the banties) and six eggs, and let her set. It looks like we only had a 50% gestation rate, but I just gave her six eggs at random, and some of them might not have been fertile. I've only seen two chicks so far, but she's been pretty cagey about letting them out from under her wings. That's not a figure of speech, by the way - a hen really does shelter her chicks under her body, and the little peepers peek out from between her feathers...if she lets them! Mamas are pretty protective.
Despite the cooler-than-ideal weather I'm still ready to say that this June is better than last year's June, and I have high hopes for the summer. Indeed - I'm hoping to get ripe tomatoes before October this year.
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