baby carrots and the first tomato

yesterday, while watering the jungle that is the tomato bed, i noticed a little ball of red. could it be, the first tomato of the season? why yes it could. we haven't eaten it just yet. it's a wee peacevine cherry tomato.

and tonight i pulled some carrots out of curiosity and in a show of extreme late season thinning. a few months back, we planted a ton of heirloom carrots of all sorts of colors and for whatever reason, neglected to thin them out so each would have ample room to grow. i'm guessing this will result in a hefty supply of cute multi-colored baby carrots.

summer in the city and pizza dough two ways

last week we sweated it out in new york city. our quaint (at least that's one way to put it) hotel in union square was just a few blocks from an excellent farmers market that runs four days a week. the famed union square greenmarket is the city's biggest market. tons of people were out in the heat to fill up on the bounty of hudson valley, long island, and upstate farms. it was the perfect blend of urban and rural; a real testament to the relevance of agriculture in modern day. we grabbed some cherries and found a shady spot in the park to enjoy some classic people watching.

tender raspberries

serious carrot stackage

microgreens - like a baby salad bar

and then we came home to a heat wave in seattle, and an explosion of goods in the garden. so what better thing to do than fire up the bbq and cook a meal outside. i decided it would be a good idea to grill pizza, because vegetarians can have fun with charcoal, too.

the backyard spread

let's just call this rustic

finished product with fresh-picked arugula

and a pear cider on the side

we had one more pizza dough and a ton of kale and other veggies to use up, and a bunch of cheeses, so we threw together a calzone tonight. it was also a good excuse to use our pizza stone, you know, the one we just had to have.

kale, front yard broccoli, and summer squash

from the madrona farmers market.

i snuck some frozen corn in there too.

don't knock it til you try it.

a little sauce

healthy dose of cheese

crimp those edges

and voila, calzone

at the end of the day though, i secretly enjoyed the grilled pizza more. something about the flavor that charcoal imparts, and the crispness of the dough. we'll be doing that again. that said, we did get our fair share of vegetables tonight, so we can feel good about that.