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More Garden Porn

Today, a mere three (3!) days after my last garden post, we’re thrilled to brag about our harvest. In fact, we’re even proud of everything that is not tomato-related, which is impressive, since we’re like 70% tomato-focused. Regardless, this is what I harvested from the non-tomato plants today, and I couldn’t help but think…yummm!

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Altogether, however, our tomato-based harvest outweighs the rest:

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Let’s celebrate the squash (the striped green and the yellow), the misshapen red onion (ahhh… the adorable foibles of the un-knowledgeable gardner) and its perfect small red onion companion (planted by a more knowledeable gardner 1-2 seasons later…), the garlic, the okra (seriously, you are missing out if you don’t have okra in your life), the eggplant (hell yeah!), the cucumber, and of course, after all of this, we’ll get to the tomatoes.

First: Our cherry and small size tomato harvest has begun to reach epic proportions. I dare you to declare otherwise:

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Second: Our larger slicing tomato selection has started to become educational:

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In order, starting at the top left, we have:

– 2 stiletz tomatoes (why? why did I grow these? I have plenty of sun and heat?); followed by
– 1 brandywine red lantis (so sweet. Smaller than expected, but we may save seeds and grow again, nonetheless).
– 1 thessoloniki waiting for full ripeness. If I can, I’ll post photos of the slices.
– Next row: 1 super marzano (paste); 1 marvel stripe (gorgeous when sliced, can’t wait), 2 orange russian 117 (oxheart/pear-shaped!!! woo-hoo!); 1 white oxheart.
– Last row: 2 black krim (purple black); 2 black from tula (lighter brown-black); 2 Paul Robeson (full chocolate black)

Finally, I am disturbed by the beauty of red current — it produces much teensy tiny, impossible to harvest, frustrating fruit. Delicious, but annoying fruit that refuses to ripen on the same schedule and each one is entirely too small to deal with. And yet, how gorgeous is she?

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Tomato Time is Coming!

We aren’t at full production, but we’re definitely seeing ripe fruit on at least half of the varieties. Today’s harvest was impressive:

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It inspired me to make an all-tomato lunch. E and I each had the pleasure of tasting and comparing large slices from several beauties:

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In clockwise order, that’s White Oxheart, Thessoloniki, Ananas Noir, Kentucky Beefsteak, Brandywine Red Lantis, Green Zebra, and Black Krim. All delicious. E’s favorite for taste was Thessoloniki, then Brandywine Red Lantis, then White Oxheart. I couldn’t decide between White Oxheart, Ananas Noir, or Black Krim for overall taste, but truly, they are all excellent, it just depends on what you want (more/less acidity, more/less gel sacs, seeds, or meat, more/less sugar).

This year, Cynthia introduced me to the awesomeness that is oxheart tomatoes — pointed on the end and shaped more like a bell pepper, often with whispy droopy foliage. Thanks to her glowing reviews, we’re growing several: White Oxheart, Orange Russian 117, Sweet Horizon, and Japanese Black Trifele.

So far, White Oxheart is the only plant that has ripe fruit:

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What a pleasure — the fruit production is prolific, and they are slightly sweet with medium acid. The best part, though, is that while they are the size of a beefsteak, they have the consistency of a paste tomato (lots of meat, little seeds). In other words, we look forward to roasting these, slicing them for sandwiches (won’t make the bread soggy!), and eating ’em easily with a knife and fork all summer — if there are too many at the end, they’ll make great fried green tomatoes and sauces.

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Bar Exam Takers: Now is the time to Breathe

Just breathe between now and the end of the exam.

I found it helpful to read everything I could about people’s actual experience taking the exam to prepare myself for the experience, so if you’re interested in doing the same, the link to all my posts is here.