July 20th was a day of seconds; my second handful of Mexico Midget tomatoes, my second zucchini, my second Healthy sweet pepper, and, of course, more cucumbers.
A few days later, I picked my first Napoleon bell peppers.
I managed to get that scrunched up guy off the plant without destroying either the pepper or the plant. One of those peppers went right into a batch of my special quesadilla filling with a homegrown onion and some farmer's market tomatoes.
The Mexico Midgets are ripening pretty steadily now.
I've been picking a handful every few days. When the first cherry tomatoes ripen, and you get your first taste of sunshiny, tomato goodness, it's hard to imagine there will come a day when you don't want to pick anymore cherry tomatoes. It inevitably happens every year, though, and seeing how fast this plant is spreading, and how many green tomatoes it holds, I know the day is coming.
Late last week, I decided to pull the rest of my carrots. In one bed, they were being overrun by the cucumber plant, and in the other, they were just harboring weeds.
This is by far the best carrot year I've ever had. I did plant more than usual, but I also had better germination than I've ever had. Even trimmed up, it's a lot of carrots.
In addition to the carrots and more cucumbers, I also picked some kale that day. More for the freezer and more for smoothies.
With so many cucumbers, and plenty of dill in the herb garden, I decided to try making something I've never made before.
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| dill pickles |
The cucumbers were probably a little big for pickles, but I don't really care. I haven't had the nerve to taste them yet, however. I also made some pickled carrots, but I forgot to take a picture of them.
Last, but certainly not least, I picked my first full size tomato on Saturday!
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They're pretty good sized tomatoes. The five of them together weighed almost four pounds. The biggest was 14.5 ounces.
A large portion of last night's dinner was a sliced tomato sprinkled with balsamic vinegar and fresh cut basil. If that doesn't taste like summer, I don't know what does.
Those are some lovely carrots! And I bet those dill pickles are tasty too. I used to make a lot of them but found we just didn't eat that many, so now I make the refrigerator kind in small batches. That's also a whopper of a tomato! I'm still waiting for a real big one.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure seven pints of pickles will be more than enough for us, but if they're good, I have some friends I can share them with.
DeleteBeautiful harvests - congrats on your best carrot year ever. It feels great when you get "the best year ever" of a particular crop, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI so know what you mean about the coming tomato glut. Anticipated, yet at the same time a bit of stressor when you have a kitchen full of tomatoes that have to be dealt with asap as more will be coming off the vines before you know it :)
It really does, and it's one of those things that keeps you coming back for more. As for the tomatoes...I'll just stick them in the freezer if they get away from me.
DeleteThose are some gorgeous carrots and pickles. The first tomatoes always brings such happiness, a harbinger of many good things to come.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It really isn't summer until you get the first tomatoes. And I'm happy to say, mine have been delicious so far.
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