Monday, August 13, 2012

Tomatoes are finally here! But, like youth, will fade fast.

A beautiful sight to behold. Our FIRST ripe tomato—a brandywine! We've been staring at it for days. And finally, last night, we devoured it in a Caprese salad.  Two more came off the vines today and now it begins. Tomato season!
Every mid-August I think this: Youth and beauty are fleeting. So pathetically brief. The garden demonstrates this in fast-forward. (By contrast, humans take much longer to decline, although it seems just a season or two since I was young and pulsing with hormonal power and developing into a sturdy adult who would require decades to fully fade. I am making steady progress, by the way—an unavoidable fate, which I regard without humor but with interest.)

A month ago, the garden was in its glory with nary a hint of decline. Every day it got bigger, better, more robust. No more. In the short term, it's good because the peppers, eggplants, onions and even the tomatoes have initiated their death dance by pumping sugar into the fruits of the their vines, branches, and bulbs. But alas, fall approaches in stealth form, hiding in August's heat and haze. Yellow leaves are present. Hollow green beans. Hideous numbers of squash bugs. Brittle things.


 
This sunflower tells the tale. Its leaves have been ravaged by finches  and birds are starting to peck at the seeds. In a couple weeks, the yellow fuzz will be gone, the seeds exposed, and bird havoc will ensue full force. But, of course, we cultivate flowers for the birds and the bees and our enjoyment. So what do we expect? 
Here too is evidence of decline. The leek flowers are turning into seed heads, their lovely lavender is gone. I'm going to have to replace my blog cover photo.

However! As the most robust growth subsides, the serious high-summer harvest begins. Last night's dinner:
The first Caprese salad, simple cuke and onion salad, roasted ratatouille, a fantastic  potato/cabbage casserole, and corn on the cob.  

PK ate corn for dessert!

The first ratatouille of 2012. OMG, as the texters say. This is roasted, not fried, and here's a recipe from  a  couple summers ago. Roasting is way easier and superior in taste to laborious sauteing. 

We finally have enough corn to put some away. This is destined for the freezer.


Part of the potato harvest. It's been 100 degrees or so here for a few days with more oppressive heat forecasted These spuds need to get into "cold storage", which means our pump house. But it isn't really that cold in there right now.
By the way, if you have landed on this site because of my previous low-carb posts and preaching, please forgive my lapses. PK insists on growing potatoes and corn, and it is difficult to resist this garden candy. I do have ways to abate potatoes' blood-sugar spiking effect, mostly by using with lots of low-carb veggies. But mostly by eating small quantities. Small potatoes, as the saying goes. Happy harvest!


3 comments:

  1. 'Take a holiday from low carb in August' is going to be one of my rules to live by. I am going to have an ear of corn (Noel won't eat it because it's all GMO) and I also have harvested a few volunteer potatoes. I got my first ripe tomato today, too! Have had quite a few cherry tomatoes but now the Saltspring Island local variety are ready. I harvested basil and made my first batch of pesto, braided garlic all morning and then cooked some kale with onions and garlic and put it in the freezer. We're in for more hot weather. It means we'll get tomatoes but it also means I'm watering from early morning to late evening. We're taking bets on whether the pump gives out or the well goes dry first. Paid $900 to have three out of work loggers take down a huge stand of maples today. That'll keep us in firewood for a couple of years, at least. Having another stand drastically reduced in October for $2000. They can't actually fell the buggers because they're so huge, on the edge of a steep slope with a house about 100 feet below the bluff. My goal in life is to kill every maple tree on our property. How UnCanadian can I be???? I could try making maple syrup, I guess, but it takes about 30 gallons of sap to make a quart of syrup. Pass. Ya gotta have humor about aging, Mary. You must see the irony in the fact that our eyesight fades at the same time we desperately need it to see those little whiskers that sprout on our chins after menopause. Okay, it's not belly-laugh guffaw material but maybe a wry smile? I gotta take some photos of my dahlias. They're spectacular.

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  2. grace - i definitely got a big belly laugh (but not yet a big belly) from your comment:

    Ya gotta have humor about aging, Mary. You must see the irony in the fact that our eyesight fades at the same time we desperately need it to see those little whiskers that sprout on our chins after menopause.

    i'm still laughing. i don't have whiskers, or much hair of any sort, but god, you should see my saggy arms! my liver spots! maybe not.

    glad your garden is kicking in. ours is sweltering in 100 plus every day for a few days with a few more days predicted. the green beans are goners, and the cukes and zukes don't like it, either.

    what's wrong with maple trees? too much shade?

    basil and tomatoes seem happy.
    kale? that got bitter and pulled long time ago. chard is still good, although tough.

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  3. I bet my kale is going to get bitter now, too. We've been in the 80's and 90's for a few weeks now. Doesn't happen here often. We're loving it while, oddly, we manage to complain simultaneously. Maple trees produce billions and billions of seeds and sprouts. They are taking over the landscape. They are enormous. They are so ubiquitous I would not be surprised to find them coming up in my sock drawer. I am going to go take some photos and email them to you. My spaghetti and zucchini squash keep doubling in size every day. Foot long cukes grow overnight. It's wondrous. Hey! Did you know that bitter foods cause your digestive process to slow down? No kiddin'. I guess that's so if we eat something poisonous we don't digest it quickly. Clever old Mother Nature.

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