Speaking of green tomatoes...

I'm wondering if Green Zebra is ripe. Any experts out there with an opinion? Here is what mine currently look like: Maybe I will be brave and pick them tomorrow evening! At least they are smaller tomatoes so it will be easier to resist the temptation to make BLTs...

Caspian Pink

I'm trying a few different heirloom tomatoes this year that I haven't grown before. Mr. Stripey being the first to ripen. Today we had out second one, Caspian Pink--a large pink tomato.

I'm impressed by the size, and judging from all the green tomatoes on the plant, it looks like it will be very productive...which is certainly a plus and somewhat unusual in heirloom tomatoes. The flavor, at least this in the first one was just a bit disappointing. Bland instead of sweet and a bit mealy rather than meaty or juicy. It could be that I picked it when it wasn't quite ripe. It can be so hard to tell with some heirlooms as a lot of them are supposed to have the green shoulders. Last year I grew Cherokee Purple and let most of them rot--not on purpose, but because they are a purplish green when ripe, and and I kept waiting for them to turn completely purple. I'm trying not to make that mistake again! None the less, Caspian Pink was a heck of a lot better than any store bought tomato. And it did make some pretty impressive BLTs.

(I don't know why I keep calling these BLTs when they are lacking the Lettuce!).

I really, really need to cut back on BLTs...it appears one the hazards of being a visiting nurse (I started a new job with a home care agency a couple of weeks ago) is serious weight gain. At least I'm guessing that by looking at the majority of my coworkers. It certainly is a lot less active than the job I had previously working a hectic medical-surgical floor! No running around on your feet all day for 12 hour days! So now I'm off to the treadmill to work off the calories from the all that bacon.

Curried Yellow Squash Soup

This evening I made this recipe from my first three yellow crookneck squash that you see in this picture. (This is todays harvest... royal burgundy and jade green beans, beets, carrots, collard greens, and Matt's wild cherry tomatoes, the first yellow pear tomato , and a glacier tomato.) I even made the vegetable broth following Diana's instructions. I would have never though to use yellow summer squash in a soup like this. Of course I didn't follow the recipe exactly ( I never do). I added a lot more garlic and used powdered ginger and maybe two teaspoons of curry powder. I also used half the recommended amount of broth and ended up with 6 cups of soup. It was thicker than Diana's, I am sure, but it was really, really good! I had some warm for dinner and put a big dollop of plain, no fat yogurt on it instead of the cilantro puree. I put some in my lunch box to to eat cold tomorrow when I am at work. I will definately be making this soup again!

Mr. Stripey

This is Mr. Stripey.

This is what he looks like on the inside.

This is what he looks like made into a BLT.

After one bite, one wonders why anyone ever bothers to buy store bought tomatoes ever.

Frist ripe tomatoes!

These ripened yesterday...The golf ball size one is Glacier and the two tiny ones are Matt's Wild Cherry. Both varieties are heirlooms. Glacier is very sweet and full of flavor. Matt's Wild Cherry may be tiny, but they pack a ton of tart tomato flavor---it is the most tomato-y tomato I have ever grown! Plus, I think they are really cute. Last year when I grew them, very few made it into the house...they mostly got eaten like berries right off the plant.

A Pickling Sort of a Day

Today was dedicated to pickles---sweet spicy bread and butter pickles and sour spicy salt pickles.

I would love to tell you that I grew all these cucumbers, but alas, my cucumbers are in serious crop failure this year. I was planning this summer to be a big pickle summer and in antipation, planted lots of dill and garlic and about 20 cucumber plants. In a normal year, I would be swamped with cucumbers. But this summer I am getting only a few everyday and those I saved for my bread and butter and pickles plus some for salads. And just for the record, I wasn't the one who bought these cucumbers--this was my husband's daughter's idea. I'm glad she suggested it, otherwise I would have ended up with just a few jars of pickles this summer.

I started the day with bread and butter pickles. I have this neat old book with lots of unusal recipes in it.Terry and I both love the this very simple bread and butter pickle recipe. (Click on the picture for a larger image.)It lends itself very well to being tweaked to allow you to use what vegetables you have on hand at the moment. I used one big bowl of cucumbers, four green peppers, and 3 big onions. I also only put in 2 1/2 cups of sugar. Somehow I can't quite quite justify using 5 cups of sugar in one recipe (unless of course I am making pecan toffee bars, but that is a recipe for another post).

Here are the cucumbers, onions, and peppers after they have been salted and ready to be packed into jars and covered with brine.

And here they are, all ten pints of the them ready for be stored for eating later. In the background you can see the cucumbers soaking in salt water for the salt pickles.

When I was done with the sweet pickles, Becky came over and we got down to the serious business of turning all those cucumbers in the first picture into salt pickles. The recipe we used is a secret Trombley family recipe and since I cannot claim to be a Trombley, I will not share it here. However, it did contain lots of garlic (homegrown, course)...

and dill....

and jalapeno peppers.
And of course lots of salt. If you are a Trombley, you need your salt, especially when it comes to pickles!

We peeled garlic, chopped peppers, and sliced cucumbers, and filled jars for what seemed like forever...and ended up with 31 quarts of salt pickles. Here we are, tired and hot, but almost done!

Becky's little son Finn couldn't wait for the cucumbers to be turned into pickles and had to eat one right away. In fact I''m pretty sure he ate at least two or three.

He also though that sitting in the canning pot was a lot of fun. It is a good thing he doesn't resemble a pickle!

When the pickles where completed, husband came in and insisted that we open a jar. My personal opinion was that the pickles needed to sit in the brine a while...say a week or two to soak up all the goodness from my home grown dill and garlic and the flavor from the spices. But I'm not a Trombley, so I defer their wished when it comes to salt pickles. Terry opened a jar, that was still warm and proceeded to eat half the jar. It appears that these pickles at least have the received the Trombley stamp of approval.

Summer splendor

So many things in full bloom right now....I have a hard time deciding what is my favorite! Here is cardinal flower. This is the first time I have ever had cardinal flower bloom. I got the plants in trade for Honeoye strawberry plants this spring.

I love this daylily...it is one I grew from seed.Terry and I both collect daylily seeds, and I grow them out and have fun seeing what they turn into. Often they are just the plain everyday ditch lilies or the Stella D'Ora type, but this year I have gotten some nice blooms. This one is one of my favorites this year. It is a prolific bloomer on short sturdy stems. The coloring is simple orange and yellow, but I love the way the petals alternate colors.

I also love this daylily--it was rescued from a construction site by Terry. It has great big lush looking brilliant orange blooms. (I love rescued plants!)

My zinnias in the front garden are going full blast and so are the marigolds. I winter sowed them this spring so they only cost me pennies per plant. They make my flower garden the loveliest one on the block. Okay, so the daylilies in this garden are pretty nice too. (This year there is not much of contest, though. I think I am the only one in the neighborhood who planted flowers. )

And last but not least, this lone phlox peeking out of a clump of hostas makes a lovely picture.