The Flava

After just getting back from South Dakota, of course the first thing I did was run to the gardens. Sweet Jesus what 7 days of sun, rain and neglect can do to the weeds! I literally pulled 2 short wheel barrow loads from the 'fall' bed. So much for the Kale crop-1 survived the weeding. In the Kale's defense I can honestly say that I didn't know what a Kale sprout looked like until today (think generic brassica), so I pulled some up before reason set in. Again, this is why one starts small....

On a much more positive note-the tomatoes are in!

The Isis Candy are as billed: little bursts of sunshine with a strong hint of fruit. We have dozens now, hundreds by months end from our two plants! The Amish Paste, which I had thought to be Roma sized, are significantly larger-filling the palm of my hand. They are a little 'meaty' compared to the true fresh eating types, but as the first tomato of summer are still superb. Once the eatin' tomatoes come in we will try to get some all sauced up. The Brandywine and Druzuba's aren't ripe yet, but the harvest looks fantastic.

Then there are the peppers. Oh my gawd the peppers!
We had our favorite quick dinner: tortilla pizza's. Just like a light pizza (heavy on the veggies, light on the cheese), but use wheat tortillas instead of pizza crust-way better for you and they cook in like 5 minutes. So tonight I picked the first 3 tomatoes, 2 bunches of fresh basil (regrown in under 2 weeks from a deep cutting) and 2 peppers probably a week early. Throw on some dried oregano from the first cutting and we ate little bits of Italian heaven tonight. The peppers were unbelievably fresh-crisp, crunchy and screaming home grown. YES!

To top it off Mia whipped up some 'dessert'-thick sliced tomatoes with a basil leaf topped by 2 chunks of fresh Feta. Set it in a pool of balsamic vinegar and broil. Forget what I said about sauce-the tomatoes don't stand a chance of making it that far!

Stumble It!