The garden is now producing full-tilt. Thanks to the unusual heat this summer, even eggplants are thriving, helped along by their black plastic mulch.
Yeller. This yellow-orange variety arose in my garden as the result of unintentional cross-breeding of Manitoba with another unknown variety.
Costoluto Genovese is an old Italian variety, with intense acidic flavor that is ideal for sauces.
Koralik, as usual, was one of the earliest tomatoes to ripen, producing large yields of marble to ping-pong ball-sized fruit.
Goodby Hot July
Today wraps up the hottest driest July in the recorded history of our area, culiminating in a record 102 F Wednesday. Today will be a cool 85. The tomato crop still looks good.
Here is Anna Russian.
Alderman Peas
My 4’x4′ patch of Alderman peas is now 8 feet tall, and loaded with a huge crop. Today I picked a bunch and shelled them – yielding about a pound of shelled peas. These are destined for dinner tonight.
Hot!!!
A week of record-breaking temperatures (pushing 100 F) is ripening vegatables at a record pace. Ripe tomatoes in the garden now include Koralik, New Hampshire SureCrop, Alicante, Besser, Slava and First Pick. Here is Alicante.
Hot evenings call for cold soups. Last night I made a fantastic Gazpacho.
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Gazpacho – Andalusian cold soup.
Quarter 2 lb of tomatoes (I used Alicante).
Dice one green pepper. I used an Italian frying pepper from the garden.
Dice one small cucumber.
Slice one small onion. (I used a fresh onion from the garden, and included the greens).
Quarter one clove of garlic.
Tear two slices of stale bread into pieces (soak in water if bread is too dry).
Add these incredients to a food processor, along with one half cup of extra virgin olive oil and a dash of salt.
Process a few seconds, stopping when it still has a little bit of a chunky texture.
Refrigerate until well-chilled.
¡Buen provecho!
First Pick
The weather is continuing hot (85 degrees) and sunny. Tomatoes continue to flourish. True to its name, the First Pick tomato variety is among the first to ripen. This heirloom variety originated with the Baptiste family of Reims, France. Unlike most other early tomatoes, First Pick plants are large and indeterminate. They produce meaty 1″-2″ fruit.
Cherry Baby
Yes, and the birds gave up on the huge crop of pie cherries, too. I pitted and canned 7 quarts of these beauties. I also made a fantastic cherry almond cake.
Here is the recipe at Epicurious. I modified it slightly by using only 1 stick of butter, adding 1/4 cup corn oil, and mixing the cherries into the batter, rather than placing on top of the butter.
Berry Berry Nice
This has been a fantastic summer for blueberries. My 4 bushes are so loaded the birds have given up trying to eat them. They grace my corn flakes every morning.