Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The harvest is IN!

Global warming deniers take note: there is still a week left in August, and yet the first wave of tomatoes has been harvested.

This may not be so unusual to about 90 percent of the country. But this is Seattle and usually we're out with the smudge pots, the blow driers, and whatever heat-generating devices we can get our hands on in early October hoping to get a few ripe before they freeze. (Though come to think of it, icewine is a lovely thing; why not ice-tomato sauce?)

Exhibit A is tonight's dinner, rustled up by my Sweetie, the official scorer (aka Sweetie, the genius chef). It's a new riff on on old favorite, the braised chicken with tomatoes and olives and onion and this 'n that. This time the this 'n that includes homegrown Sun Gold and grape tomatoes and some eggplant from our CSA box. Turned into sort of a chicken-thigh baba ghanoush, topped
with a cucumber-mint-yogurt sauce. Yum-O.

It's not so crazy to have cherry tomatoes this time of year. They're little, after all. But exhibit B is still simmering on the range: I harvested a big giant bowl of roma tomatoes, and batch one of Greg's famed spaghetti sauce is in production. It doesn't even have the herbs in it yet, but it's tasting mighty fine.

I got home and decided I had to get the harvest in before much longer. A good bunch were ripe, and there are many more times today's harvest on the way. Actual summers are not bad. If only we could figure out a way for it to be 103 degrees in the tomato patch but cool in the house.

No comments: