In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

Summer is defined for me by the arrival of the heirloom tomatoes, here the favored ‘Cherokee Purple.’ In the fog belt where I garden it is always a race to see if all the tomatoes will ripen before the leaves succumb to various maladies. (See my previous post Growing Tomatoes in the Fog Belt).

Since ‘Black Krim’ and ‘Cherokee Purple’ can depart sooner than I would hope, I also grow ‘Early Girl’ or ‘Stupice’ to provide a more reliable supply of a medium tomato. This year a larger than usual black cherry tomato was the first tomato to appear and one of them is just right for a sandwich.

I grew the cherry tomatoes on the right in 2014 and my little neighbor girls dubbed them “explosion tomatoes” because they explode with flavor in your mouth. I shared the seed with San Diego Seed Company after several successful seasons in my garden. Then I lost track of the seed. This year, Brijette at SDSC gave me a packet of Organic Large Black Tomato Seeds—the progenitor was the oval black cherry tomatoes I had given her.

Here’s a typical day’s harvest for the last week. Some days it’s four cucumbers which makes my neighbors happy. Zucchini is waning but pole green beans step up.

This is the last of things—the final ‘Dorsett Golden’ apples, though we usually have a second smaller crop in the fall. The second round of ‘Green Globe’ artichokes were not as tender and meaty as the first but they’re welcome anytime.

We also stripped the two nectaplum trees since some were falling and we were sharing them with a night visiting opossum and fruit beetles during the day. The opossum has been relocated since we anticipate it would have moved on to the tomatoes.

The basket above weighed 16 pounds and one earlier in the week 12 pounds. Vacation interfered with keeping track but we estimate about 50 pounds came from the two trees in their third year. Again, neighbors are happy and I have plans but we mostly eat them fresh several times a day.

I just had my first bowl of nectaplum ice cream, made from the Plum Ice Cream recipe in The Perfect Scoop. Just nectaplums lightly cooked and pureed, sugar, cream and a dash of peach brandy shared by a friend from her son’s distillery. Here’s my description: a delicate, fragrant, pale pink cloud of sweetness and fruit.

And some floral sweetness and light from the garden.

You may enjoy seeing what other garden bloggers harvested last week at Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

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