Blustery Harvests

It is fall, the first leek came out of the ground the other night. It was a beauty, a good omen for the coming winter. This leek found its way into the wok. There it met some green onion, garlic and chard. Leeks are one of the many vegetables that I didn't know what to do with a few years. I could think of nothing aside from Potato & Leek soup. That always seemed too hard, too involved, too heavy. Then Alicia Silverstone told us, through her book The Kind Diet, to steam it with a bit of vinegar and pepper. It is terribly simple and terribly tasty. Now I can incorporate a leek or two into any dinner in a matter of minutes.

The first of many leeks to come

It was also a week to pick the last of the peppers and tear down the couple remaining tomatoes that were still outside the greenhouse. We are down to less than a 5 gallon bucket of green San Marzano.  I'm not sure what to do with them, aside from trying to let them ripen. I've read that they are easily canned, but that still doesn't tell me what to do with them. It would be fine to let them go to compost, but I'll look around a bit more before that happens.

Shades of green -- Tomatillos, the last of the peppers
and a handful of San Marzano Romas.

Dinner

Some, but not all of this, was dinner last night. It ended up stir-fried and next to some rice. Most of the remaining beans will find themselves blanched today; a couple of the eggplant will go to work with me to give away; and the remaining tomatoes will go into the freezer where they'll wait for the rest of the canning tomatoes to get ripe.

I'm also posting this link to Daphne's Harvest Monday entry.  I ran across her through Laura's Modern Victory Garden blog. Both are consistent, high quality posters.

Tomato dreams

I made the hoops larger this year. In prior years the tomatoes have always crashed into the plastic, resulting in burnt and disfigured leaves. This year the hoops are made from 10' lengths of 1/2" PVC, resulting in something like a 4' loft. 

My goal is ripe tomatoes, canned and put up before the end of the summer, that being the end of August instead of the beginning of October. I have a dream of gobs of ripening tomatoes by the end of July. Steve Solomon says that it is possible. I am hopeful. I see the pathway to get there and positive signs. These plants are bursting with blooms, pollinated and waiting for pollination. I see the beginnings of fruit as well. These are determinate, they should soon set fruit aggressively.  

Today is a beautiful day and Cliff Mass says that the northwest summer weather switch will turn on around July 6. Things look good, but there is always time for disaster to sweep in. 

Started Feb 24; emerged March 3; put out May 8.