Food This Week 15

My wife and I are headed out of town this coming week, on a trip to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. I planned it all and managed to keep my mouth shut even when I was dying to tell her (she wanted it to be a surprise), and there will definitely be some yummy restaurants on the itinerary. The meal plan for this week is therefore very simple! Just know that we will be enjoying fresh local foods from our B&B, at least one picnic lunch, and a variety of dinners that neither of us has to cook.

Tomato Overload!

I was surprised by a gardener's gift of green tomatoes: her plants were at the end of their growing season, and she'd already put up 40lbs? 60lbs? (A WHOLE LOT) of cooked tomatoes. Sounds like she's tired of them by now! So when she uprooted the plants while I was visiting, I got the green globes -- and a few half-ripened ones -- that were still clinging (instead of them going to compost). Now what to do with them?

Tomatoes Hanging Around

I have tomatoes! All of a sudden, it seems, the Topsy-Turvy fruits started reddening up. Tomatoes are so rewarding to grow instead of buy -- they smell amazingly fresh and... well, tomatoey. And they cost less! (At least, doing a single plant this way; I can't speak for full garden boxes of tomato plants.)

We used to have cherry tomatoes in the backyard when I was a kid, but these are full-sized Early Girls. Very firm and sweet. And there were, at the time of the photo, 17 still-green ones queueing up behind.

Strawberry the First

This is the first ripe strawberry from our fire escape hanging planter. It was about the size of my first thumb joint.