The First Tomato, and Coming Soon - Purple Tomatillo and Peach Salsa
Landmark
event! Last night – July 14 - we ate the first ripe tomato from our food
garden. A great big Cherokee Purple. Still warm from the sun, not too ripe. I
chopped it up and tossed it raw into some simple eggplant pasta (dressed only in
our own basil pesto). I’m also having it
leftover for lunch today.
To
mark the event, here’s a quick garden update: The squashes are all full-on now.
We pick lots every day, so lots go to work with us for colleagues, and I leave
bags of it with the neighbors. I started nibbling the first green beans last
week (I prefer them raw, Todd likes them steamed). The first green peppers are
almost ready to pick.
We’ve
been getting delicious Japanese eggplant for weeks, and some went into last
night’s pasta. The tomatoes are on the vines, and have begun to ripen. It looks
like we’ll be inundated with sweet cherry tomatoes again this year. We have
tiny cucumbers, which means within a week or so, we’ll be picking fresh
cucumbers for salads and cucumber water. The white eggplants are still small,
so give them time.
The
hot peppers are getting big and plentiful, and I added an Ancho chili pepper to
some yellow squash and made a nice pasta topping with a spicy kick. The Tulsi
(holy basil) is ready to harvest. I should have planted a second crop. Second and
third crops of Italian parsley and basil are popping up. Watermelon and cantaloupe
are moving along slowly. I don’t know how much hope I have for either.
Beets
are almost ready to harvest. I eat the greens as well as the beet. Sauté the
greens with a little olive oil. I even add them raw to salads. In other words,
eat all of the plant, because it’s all good.
The
tomatillos have flowers all over, so I think we’ll have the purple fruits ready
for fresh salsa by mid-August. And the peaches are getting bigger. Some developed
a rot that did them in, but most are doing well.
I’m thinking a garden-fresh, purple
tomatillo/peach salsa. And if there’s enough for canning, we’ll have it for the
start of the football season.
/II\
Namaste
