two point five tomatoes

it's been quite hot here in the pacific northwest. though, the weather folks tell us it's going to drop nearly thirty degrees in the next few days. we're hoping that doesn't have a devastating effect on the garden.

back to the heat wave though. yesterday the last thing we wanted to do was turn the stove on. so, we pulled together an excellent salad of garden goods - yellow, green, and purple beans, lettuce, red onions (which i quick pickled in cider vinegar and sugar), and i'd say approximately 2.5 tomatoes. seriously, one of them was so small, i can only count it as half. we also had some sweet corn on hand from the farmers market. fresh raw sweet corn is the best.

we added some excellent blue cheese, dressed it with a home made honey mustard, and toasted some bread up. delish.

ok, confession. after we ate this lovely salad, we headed out on a walk. destination frozen custard. but at least we walked, right?

beans and broccoli, among other (green) things

earlier this week, i noticed that the pole beans are producing quite well. so i sauteed some up with a head of romanesco broccoli - that's the kind that looks like a pale green triceratops head if you needed a helpful description in addition to the visual. wikipedia tells me that it's a "variant form of cauliflower" and that its "shape could be described as a fractal; each bud is a series of smaller buds, all arranged in yet another logarithmic spiral." wow. apparently, it's a beaming example of mathematical wonderment. i was just going to say that it looks really neat and tastes good. the stalk also had a surprisingly sweet flavor.

green and purple pole beans

romanesco broc

and the lovely meal that ensued

(roasted potatoes, golden beets, and salmon)

among other things, the garden is exploding with greenery. tons of green tomatoes, actually. we're hoping they all ripen. or at least most of them, because who doesn't like a good fried green tomato? but really, we can't wait for the hypothetical abundance of tomatoes. recall that we planted ten different varieties.

here's a black krim.

this one will get a nice and deep purply-red...hopefully.

and then there are the pumpkins. in our first attempt at growing them, we've opted for the sugar pie variety, with the hopes of turning many into delightful pies. the experiment's going well to date.

especially if one were to gauge success by the degree to which the pumpkin vines have escaped the beds. right. we'll keep you posted on that.