Summer hung on this week and gave us seven whole days of beautiful blue skies, sunshine, low humidity, and perfect temperatures. Mike and I spent a GORGEOUS morning at the beach on Sunday. Iced coffee, Charlie chasing sticks into the water, Mike reading to me, dried tomatoes and olive oil on French bread. I kept thinking, “This might be the last time we do this this year.”
But, in addition to providing us with one last beach day, this week was also the final kick in the pants for any crops in the garden that need a slightly longer growing season…namely, the melons and the Brandywine tomatoes.
Melons are tricky to grow up here, simply because they take so long to ripen. But yesterday we cracked two of them open and let the sugary, warm flesh melt on our tongues. This puppy has been baking in its little oven of vines and leaves since early June. Delicious.
If any of you are eating your melons right now, too, may I recommend them sliced into little boats with the husk removed and wrapped with prosciutto? A salty-sweet dream-come-true.
The Brandywines on the other hand are largely still green or a sickly shade of orange-green. We’re rooting for them to turn the corner to fully ripe before the weather turns the corner to fully autumn, but it’s a very close race.
Thankfully, most of the other tomato varieties {including the gorgeous little rubies pictured} have long since ripened, been picked, and dried or frozen or consumed fresh. Ohhhh fresh tomatoes, I will miss thee. Thanks for being so awesome this year.
Our friends are going to show us how to save seeds from our tomato plants so we can plant our favorites again next spring {some of the varieties were brought home from Italy with my dad, so they’re special and can’t be found in a regular U.S. seed catalog.} I’m going to try to document the lesson, because I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been wanting to know how to save seeds. Granted, the process is different depending on the type of plant you’re saving from, but we’ll get you started at least.
What end-of-summer gems are coming out of your garden right now?
We FINALLY pulled our first harvest of green beans from our garden a week-or-so ago. We had a terrible problem with Japanese Beetles this summer (who were able to enjoy our garden much more than we did). Jen and I were so excited for our garden this spring, but they sure put a damper on the mood once everything started growing. Not to fear, though, we’ll be right back at it again next year.
Yesterday, I put down some organic Milky Spore. This is supposed to be the best stuff out there, while not being a pesticide and safe for the pups. I’m hoping come summer 2012, our trees, shrubs and garden will be big, beautiful and flourishing!
Any other suggestions for these little terrors?
I would love to learn how to (successfully) save seeds so look forward to that post.