early august harvesting

Can I rant for a sec? I have to say... man, the weather really blows this summer. Wait, what summer. 

Right, west coast peeps? Even southern California has been cool-ish (though I would take their "cool" over ours.) And, it's driving me nuts reading my East Coast friends write about their terrible, evil heat wave. Ugh, please send me some of that right now. And some of the margaritas and lemonade you've been drinking while wearing sandals and strappy dresses :) I'm ready to chuck my wool jacket and scarf into the Bay.

And, the garden has been suffering, too... in the tomato department at least. Sad, soggy and stunted. (I would have to pick a La Niña summer to get all crazy ambitious in the tomato dept...) So, today I took matters into my own gloved hands and harvested a whole bunch of green cherry and pear tomatoes which have been stalled in neutral for a few weeks now. Early on in the season, the weather was great, so a bunch of fruit was set. But, now they're just tapping their fingers... waiting for some sun. Meeeee tooooo.



So, I decided to harvest a bunch of greenies to make something out of them. Maybe it'll give some of the remainders a chance to grow up. I'm thinking of making a tiny batch of Gayla's delicious-looking green tomato chutney. I'll let you know.

But, they are pretty no?



And, as you can see the summer squash plants have been producing steadily, if slowly. Jacky and I have been eating them sauteed in butter with herbs, mere moments after harvest. Yum.

And, the blackberries! Complain as I do about this exceptionally cool summer... the blackberry monster out back couldn't give a lick. It's pumping out berries like mad. The harvest is a little late this year, and it's just getting started -- and already it's overwhelming. I've been casually harvesting pints at a time. Like, I go out to pick some thyme and come back with a bowl full of finger-stainers. And this is like 1% of what's out there. Yeah, loving the blackberries right now. Especially since all the other months of the year I'm at war with it, hacking it back and digging up any upstarts.





Does a number of the hands, though. (Worth it.)

And, the little pickling cucumbers are starting to pop up. They, too, don't seem to care too much about the weather. Who knew?

Thanks for letting me rant :) I feel better.

Now, what shall I put that chutney on?