Today's pick!

More and more tomatoes are ripening! And there are still many peppers and cucumbers to harvest, too. I found some Anaheim chilies today. That was a surprise- I thought Mom hadn't planted any!



Both varieties of eggplant are doing well, too. I cooked one of the big eggplants the other night. Mom thought it was delicious. The tomatoes are a bit weak. That might be because they haven't gotten enough sun this summer.

Finally!

Ripe tomatoes!



There were a lot more than these (and better looking, too!)- enough to make some BLT sandwiches! It's been a tough year for tomatoes.

And here is a nice, fat eggplant almost ready to harvest...

The tomatoes are still struggling...

The bugs are getting at them, and most aren't ripe yet. There were a couple of ripe ones this week.



The flower gardens are looking good!



There was a bit of a dry spell last week. Last night, we got a lot of rain.

Figs!

This is the "Fig Tree that Ate Stafford County". It gets bigger and bigger every year. They're really not supposed to get this big...Mom cuts branches off on a regular basis, and replants them. Sometimes they survive and grow into trees themselves!



This is the "Son of Fig Tree that Ate Stafford County". Actually, it's really more like a clone! This came from a cutting that Mom planted a few years ago. It bore fruit after a year.



The figs won't be ripe until mid to late August. Once they're ripe, we'll have more than we can eat. Some get dried, some are made into preserves. When we have parties in August, guests eat them right off of the tree!

Best thing about a garden...

...getting to eat what you've grown. I've made casseroles out of the zucchini and other squash, and gazpacho and Benedictine sandwiches out of the cucumbers! My gazpacho is even better with fresh tomatoes from the garden, but they're not ripe yet. I had to use store tomatoes (on the vine, because of the recent salmonella scare).

Benedictine recipe is here:

http://kiraskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/08/some-older-recipes.html