04 September 2016

The nature of gardening

A successful vegetable garden requires a lot of work over a period of months, and also a lot of waiting. Then all of a sudden you feel overwhelmed with all that the garden has given you. Look at all these tomatoes!


Above is only a small part of the tomatoes we've picked so far. We've already eaten quite a few, including as part of a pasta dish we had for lunch yesterday, with eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, onion, and garlic. Walt picked a lot more tomatoes yesterday morning. See below.


Friday morning, I was out looking around in our 2016 vegetable garden and noticed the cluster of tomatoes in the next photo.


All these — and many more — will ripen over the coming weeks. We'll be making tomato sauce for freezing or canning; oven-dried tomatoes; tomates confites... and eating tomatoes in salads daily. No complaints. I need to look back through the blog and see what other tomato ideas I can find from past summers.

16 comments:

  1. In the last photo, is that what you'd call a bumper crop?

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    1. The origin of the expression "bumper crop" is interesting. Here's a link to a site that explains it (at least partially).

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  2. That really is a lot of....
    protosauce, protorat, protocanned and protoetcetera tomatoes in the last picture.
    We are much in the same boat...
    but, as you say, overwhelmed with fruit, courgettes and nuts, too!!
    You don't need any courgettes, do you.... he types hopefully?
    Hysterical LOL.
    The dehydrator is in overdrive.....

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    1. Having zucchini fritters for lunch. Along with green beans à l'albigeoise and a salade de tomates.

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    2. Mmmm, zucchini fritters. I'm making them as an appetizer for friends tonight. And your tomatoes look wonderful. My own plot hasn't been quite as bountiful as yours, but there are so many farmers here growing all sorts of beautiful tomatoes, so I'm not lacking for them.

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  3. I must be hungry, I see Bacon Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches.. on some really good toasted bread that you can only get in France lol

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    1. Thanks for the BLT idea. I have to go to the supermarket today, so I'll get some bacon.

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  4. Yumm :) BLT sounds fabulous. So does grilled cheese with tomato. Yummm. A tomato-version tarte tatin (I'll bet I got that idea from you) is yummy, too.

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    1. Or maybe grill a chicken breast and make club sandwiches...

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  5. I have a squirrel as a pest in my garden - going after my tomatoes ( I didn't know that some liked tomatoes). I saw a red hot chill pepper on the patio: half bitten - must have been mistaken for a cherry tomato. Hope he learned his lesson :-).

    We are having zukes beignets for lunch also.

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    1. Never heard of squirrels eating tomatoes before, but squirrels are so pesky that nothing would surprise me. You can be glad that one of them didn't actually dig up your tomato plants.

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  6. Quite an impressive crop! Just curious what variety are the tomatoes in the last picture?

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    1. Walt says they are just Roma tomatoes. They are more pear-shaped than other Romas we have grown.

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    2. Walt says they are just Roma tomatoes. They are more pear-shaped than other Romas we have grown.

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  7. Lurker here. Love your blog!
    Morrocan Stuffed Tomatoes
    http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015607-moroccan-stuffed-tomatoes

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    1. Thank you for that recipe and your nice comment. I was thinking of making tomatoes stuffed with ground chicken and vegetables, and Moroccan style sounds good.

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