In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
The middle of August and finally tomatoes from transplants in late April. Grapril, Gray, Gloom, No Sky July and intermittent Fogust delayed the harvest. Blossoms dropped off some plants with cool temps, little sun and few bees. Admittedly, summer 2023 was worse by our solar panel data and I only harvested 18 tomatoes from four plants.
It should be noted that we’ve been away for six weeks since early May. Faithful garden tenders kept things going but I was not as attentive even when home. I’ll accept the results in exchange for a trip to England, two visits with our son’s family in Massachusetts and camping in the Eastern Sierras last week.
My favorite tomatoes are featured in the thumbnail—Dwarf Rosella Purple and Black Cherry tomatoes.
I plant Early Girl tomatoes most years because they usually produce acceptably here at the coast. And my husband prefers them to the heirloom tomatoes. This year’s crop does not look like Early Girl tomatoes I’ve grown previously which were more rounded and without the creasing. I’m not complaining—just happy to have tomatoes. Some of these will be used for gazpacho later in the week.
Stupice is another reasonably reliable tomato here in the fog belt but this year they’re very small, akin to large cherry tomatoes. I’ll slow roast most of these for a pasta dish.
The Baby Belle peppers have done well. The plants are small but give me red peppers before the red bell peppers are ready.
The Chelsea Prize cucumbers have been squirrelly this year. Odd shapes, fatter and not as long. I’m guessing some genetic variability in the seed source or maybe the weather. Still, they’re crisp, thin-skinned with few seeds. I gathered another four after I took this photo.
So Gazpacho from the original Moosewood Cookbook is ahead when a friend comes for dinner in a few days.
The Emerite green beans are only now beginning to slow down after almost a month of heavy production. These will go to the freezer after blanching. Read why they’re a favorite in my post My Favorite Pole Bean—Emerite.
French sorrel to the rescue when I realized I had no lettuce for a summer salad last night. I repotted a very old plant and it revived, providing a perfect lemony sub.
Here’s Sunday’s church entry bouquet with two different grevilleas. The bees definitely prefer the Moonlight grevillea. I thought by gathering them just after sunrise I’d avoid the bees but found they spent the night in the flowers. I had to bat the flowers with my clippers to move them along. Still plenty of flowers on the shrub for them.
Check out Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.
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