My tomato broke in half

When one of my indeterminate tomatoes broke in half the other day , I did feel my heart break a bit as well. For everyone's sake, I am trying to refrain from writing especially cliche titles for my blog posts. Thus, the comparisons between my broken tomato and heart will end here.

However, I do know that I have gone two season with lack luster success keeping my tomatoes from collapsing under their own weight. I used tomato cages last year, and they were pretty much lying horizontal by early October. I staked my tomatoes to three closely stake bamboo poles this spring and pruned excessively. Alas, I still arrived at my garden with my tomatoes and bamboo poles lying horizontal on the ground. It probably does not help that I have a very sandy soil. Not much more needs to be said about sand as a foolish foundation. However, I did find a link to some Master Gardeners in California who went on a quest to find the best wait to keep tomatoes upright and strong.


http://www.mastergardeners.org/picks/tomato_staking.html

I am inspired to try the square wooden cage option. It has the most advantages and is a good excuse to get my own drill :)

Hungarian Cucumber Salad

Last week I had six large cucumbers in my refrigerator and few ideas of what to make other than soup. The recipe below was really tasty, and I was surprised how quickly the cucumbers were used up by this simple recipe. My mom suggested adding onions to the salad next time. It was really refreshing.


HUNGARIAN CUCUMBER SALAD
Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook, 2004
By Joan Nathan
found at Epicurious

Rosemary Ratatouille

My mom tipped me off to the good ratatouille recipe on the Cooking for Engineers blog. I substituted rosemary for basil, and it was delicious. Be sure to add plenty of rosemary early in the cooking process. I think it would also be good with a handful of cannellini beans.

Yummy Ratatouille Recipe via Cooking for Engineers

dry dry days

I watered my garden three times last week, but it was not enough. My bush beans have dried out, and the cucumbers are barely hanging on. The only plants that appear to thrive in the drought are the banana peppers and sweet potatoes. My neighbor told me that I need to work harder because I am at the top of the hill. Alternatively, I could pick a plot without a slope next spring. I think I am going to choose the later option even if it means no winter garden of garlic leeks and onions.

There are plenty of tomatoes right now. I finally bit into my zebra, pear, and big boy tomatoes. I am loosing faith that the brandywine are going to bloom. To my surprise, one of my eggplants has risen from the dead in the past two weeks. I am off to water again tonight.

First batch of Spaghetti Sauce

Enough roma tomatoes have ripened that I was able to make my first batch of spaghetti sauce on July 11th. The not-so-secret ingredient to my sauce is carrots, and I did have a few smaller carrots ready from my garden. The homegrown garlic, onions, oregano, basil and garlic made their way into the pot as well. I forgot that garden carrots are especially sweet, so I may need to use fewer in the next batch to make it a little less sweet next time around.

I am looking forward to many more tasty tomato dishes in the coming weeks :)

New Zealand Spinach salad

I had my first full grown New Zealand spinach salad with goat cheese and a dash of aged balsamic vinegar last night. The spinach is tasty, but has a thicker texture that the normal bloomsdale spinach. I had never heard of the green until I tried to figure out why my regular spinach bolted last year. Alas, DC is far to hot for regular spinach, but local gardeners recommened New Zealand Spinach and Malabar as a close subsitute.

Capatain Cook brought back the near-spinach plant, genus Tetragonia, to London after the 1770 expedition. It remains a staple of Maori cooking, and it is well suited to warm moist climates. Although DC only purports to the first adjective, my plants have come in well. One can learn more about the plant at the following links below. Although I was a bit disturbed that the Wikipedia entry suggested that one needed to blanch the veggies to get rid of mild toxins, none of the other resources intruct this, and I still feel find this morning.

Wikipedia's "New Zealand Spinach"
University of Florida's Extension Office on "New Zealand Spinach"
Garden Guide's "New Zealand Spinach"

Cucumber Mint soup

I have bagged four cucumbers since I came back to DC on Wednesday. My one plant is spreading its vines and sprouting blossoms at a very rapid pace, so I am expecting more soon. Given the plethora of cucumbers coming my way, I was pleasantly surprised to learn how many variations on cucumber soup were flittering out there in the foodie sphere. My first cool cucumber soup of the year comes from the Epicurious recipe below. My neighbor offered some fresh mint to mix as well. I would not have thought to add an egg, ever, to cucumber soup, but it was simply lovely

COLD CUCUMBER SOUP WITH MINT
Gourmet, July 1996 (found with Epicurious)

Some of the comments indicate that the soup needed peppers to add a bit of heat. With homegrown cukes, I think it is best to just keep the recipe as is.