It is now tomato season. It was slow in coming with our cool summer and the typical overcast conditions. Last week was quite warm and finally the tomatoes grew larger and began to ripen.

Over the weekend I harvested several dozen tomatoes. Though for a time we were losing one or more large tomatoes to rodents every night that problem resolved with traps and wrapping the entire bed in a two foot “fence” of bird netting that the critters can’t climb.

Most of my ‘San Marzano’ tomatoes have had blossom end rot, a problem I’ve rarely had with any of my tomatoes. My gardening neighbor who grew them from seed has the same issue. This sent me to the Vegetable Research Information & Research Center of the University of California Cooperative Extension to read about blossom-end rot on tomatoes. I don’t think it was a calcium deficiency but uneven moisture might explain our predicament.

I took the salvaged portions of the ‘San Marzano’ tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red onions and roasted them together with olive oil and rosemary. Part way through the roasting time I added my first zucchini to the veggies.

The roasted vegetables combined with cooked pasta, a little pasta water and basil strips made an easy summer entree from the garden.

It’s handy to have my red onions, now cleaned and stored in the garage.

With the weather so cool it took almost two weeks for this zucchini to go from a tiny fruit to seven inches. Aren’t we all accustomed to having zucchini turn into lethal weapons almost overnight?

I’ve been picking the ‘Provider’ bush beans morning and evening to catch them at the filet stage. Cast iron skillet roasting is still my favorite way to prepare them but last week I did something quite different.

With the pile of beans I made pureed green beans for my grandson who just started solid food last week. These little jam jars went to the freezer until my next visit.

The zinnias growing with the vegetables are thriving. They make me smile every time I pass by the stand. You can see my garden in a post from a few days ago: In My Garden Today, Late July.

See what other garden bloggers harvested from their gardens last week at Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.