Design

I harvested most of the tomatoes in the mountains today, both big and small.  The weather for tomorrow is a low in the high 30's, and a high in the 60's (°F), so  tomato ripening is not in the forecast.  I cleaned up the spent plants, sowed some collard, mesclun, and kale seeds, thinking optimistically, and about bed protections (row covers), and started work preserving the harvest.  I roasted about half of the green tomatoes (large and small),  froze them, but also put bags of fresh green cherry tomatoes directly in freezer bags, too. I'm still left with a (quite) large container full of green tomatoes along with a biggish one full of green cherry tomatoes, in addition a number of half-ripe large tomatoes, and a bowlful of red cherry tomatoes. Swiss chard and green cherry tomatoes We had chard tonight, fresh from the garden, along with wahoo from the NC coast.  A lovely dinner.  There wasn't a reason to buy greens at the farmer's market this morning; ...

This evening's harvest yielded Corno di Toro peppers, a poblano pepper, 'Holy Mole' peppers, various tomatoes, and Lao and Thai eggplants. It's just about the last of the spring-planted tomatoes at this point. Maybe I should have been giving them more TLC with compost and organic fertilizer, but I've been distracted. The rains basically stopped over six weeks ago, so production has depended on watering. The mid-summer plantings of squash and tomatoes are looking good, and it's almost time to sow greens!

We're expecting temperatures to dip below freezing tonight here. We've already had a few light frosts, primarily evident in low-lying or exposed areas. A lovely white-flowered Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' that I'd planted in one of my containers was already showing the effects of cooler weather; coming from warmer regions of the world, it went into decline when night temperatures went below 40°F. An exposed Portulaca was similar, looking quite stressed after one of the frosts. I harvested all of the last peppers this afternoon -- the poblanos and thick-walled 'pizza' peppers, along with a few last pimento peppers. I'd already picked the final few tomatoes, and will need to figure out what to do with the green tomatoes. Relish? Chutney? Some sort of green salsa? I can roast and freeze all the peppers, but maybe I should also try to roast the green tomatoes, and freeze them, too. After my enthusiasm for making jams & jellies when I was younger, I...

The bright yellow flash of male goldfinches this time of year alerts me to their presence. Lately, a pair of goldfinches has been eating Liatris, Rudb eckia, and purple coneflower seeds in the front meadow. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of the male hanging on the spiky Liatris -- they're skittish enough that it's hard to sneak up on them. The woodchuck(s) must be hungry. They're now starting to eat almost green tomatoes! Or maybe this is a hungry cardinal... woodchucks are most likely.