Tomatoes!

This year, I planted four Bush Early Girls (smaller and squatter than traditional Early Girls), two Brandywines, a Sungold Cherry and a Moskvitch (a Russian heirloom variety). The four large plants have new supports that are doing a much better job than my previous bamboo teepee-shaped trellises, and all eight plants have been loving the drip irrigation -- no blossom-end rot this year!

Eventually, the plants were so happy that three of the four the Bush Early Girls collapsed under the weight of all their fruit! So I harvested everything they had (the green ones will ripen on a shelf in the kitchen, still attached to their stems) and pulled them out. This means better air circulation for the larger plants and, frankly, it's not like the two of us were going to be able to eat eight plants' worth of tomatoes.

Here's how the plants look today, after I pulled out the three collapsed plants and did some pruning.


In the photo below, that's one of the Brandywines on the left; the last remaining Bush Early Girl is the smaller one to the right. The blue ornamental is mealy-cup sage (salvia farinacea) and the yellow plume in the upper-right corner is "New Look Yellow" celosia.

With all of this good stuff, we had steak panzanella twice last week!

Steak Panzanella

• Heirloom tomatoes, preferably two different colors, halved or quartered (depending on size)
• Grilled zucchini or summer squash, cut into small chunks
• Grilled french bread, rubbed with garlic and torn into small chunks
• Small amount of chopped onion
• One large steak, medium-rare, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Handful of mixed herbs (basil and dill are lovely)
• Crumbled goat cheese
• A tablespoon or so of capers

Toss with red wine vinaigrette and serve. Perfect for hot weather. Substitute any grilled vegetables you like (it's an easy way to use them up when you have too many ripening veggies in the house).

Samoflauge

Two More from Last Weekend

Blues at the Barn and St. James Hotel, Red Wing

Thanks for a lovely time, D & D! :)