Tag Archives: beefsteak tomatoes

The Year of the Tomato

Ah, yes…

Some years, the zucchini hogs all the glory, just producing and producing and flowering and fruiting out all over the place.  the cuke has had its year and green beans know how to arrive in glory.

tomatoes beefsteak

But I garden mostly for tomatoes and this year is just a really good tomato year.  When I stumbled in to the kitchen for coffee this morning and saw tomatoes in bowls and on trays on every counter and the kitchen table, too, I realized that I must have picked at least 3 dozen tomatoes yesterday – to add to a couple dozen still just sitting around.

That included tomatoes from 4 plants: an heirloom tomato, which, as they are known to be prone, contracted a disease and is dying, but still yielding its’ fruit like crazy (a lesson to be learned); a Sweet-100 cherry tomato plant which is madly fruiting golf-ball-sized tomatoes, an over-achiever to be sure; an Early Girl, which wasn’t particularly early, but which is certainly giving us armfuls of perfectly-globed 6-8 oz. tomatoes; and finally the beefsteak.  I picked almost a dozen of them yesterday and at least 6 of them were almost a pound each.  They hang off a slice of bread – they’re that big.  And that is fun. Dave was helping me show some off  (below) – but then I got more!

tomato beefsteak

I always tell everyone, gushing and exuding true love, “If you can only garden one thing, make it the tomato.”  And the tomato is loving me back this year, delicious on my taste buds and in my tummy!  :)

I grew a whole bunch of okra seeds

As okra goes, I stunk at growing it this year.  I kept waiting too long to pick it and ended up with a whole bunch of brown, hard seed pods.  So I have a lot of seeds…but did I wait long enough to remove them, or should I have let them completely die off on the plant?  Will they be useable?

Guess I’ll be back to frozen okra when I need it.  Does anyone ever see it fresh anywhere?  At Sprouts?  Anyone?

okra leaf

Meanwhile – I was noting the okra leaf…haven’t I seen something like that somewhere before? Oh, yes: everywhere in Colorado!!!

marijuana leaf detail

In other {GARDEN} news~

What is the deal with the beefsteak tomatoes?  Are they really like twins or triplets and sometimes even like quardruplets that just join together so we can beam over our 2-pound blushers?  I have got these gigantic beefsteaks on the vine, heavy, juicy and so deliciousssssssssss!  Yes, I am scheduling regular BLTs at this time in my life!

beefsteak tomato

Does anyone know if you can eat the leaves of the sweet potato vine – especially if they are completely hogging up all the room in all of my flower pots?

sweet potato vine leaves in a vase

Down to the last of the gargantuan Brussel’s Sprouts leaves.  Washing two big sink-loads as we speak, which will give me space for Chinese Cabbage for the fall garden!  I popped some seeds in 2 days ago and in this heat, they have already germinated!  Perfect!

brussell'sprouts leaves

Now-these leaves – You can stir fry them, use them in a fritata, cook them the same way you would cabbage or broccoli or kale, you can use them as a wrap for a crab filling, make a sausage soup, roast them with garlic or make flavored, baked chips out of them.  I am sharing these ideas for my kids because everybody is going home with some Brussels’ leaves!  :)

Do you know what I love most about this time of year?  It’s ripe.

When I stepped outside this morning, the air just smelled ripe.  Everything tastes better, all the colors are richer and the garden is reaching its’ intended glory.  This is why I planted and weeded and fed and tended.  For now.  The world is heavy with ripened fruit…