The weekend was another one of dealing with overpowering heat and not a drop of rain. Other than grabbing some needed grocery items on Friday afternoon, which was a scorcher, meeting up with daughter and her partner on Saturday at a wine bar to celebrate his birthday over a chilled glass of Portuguese Rosé - which was great - we stayed close to home.
Watering is tiring at the best of times, dragging heavy hoses while batting off mosquitoes and bees (I've yet to find a bug repellent that truly works!) in triple digit temperatures is stupid. . . . . . .but sometimes has to be done for the greater good.
Neighbor is away, the vegetable patch is mine for a while, and I'm not going to allow these gorgeous tomatoes to suffer - he told me to pick them and use them which of course I'm doing.
The weekend harvest!
These 'Beefmaster' tomatoes are excellent - and we actually made old
fashioned sandwiches with sourdough bread, mayo, salt and
pepper - delicious! The flour was out as I also plan to bake some
whole wheat cheese scones this week - on a cooler day of
course - as they go well with tomato dishes.
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Early Sunday morning prior to another hot day, Bob fired up the grill.
We cooked corn and red peppers for future recipes and grilled thick
slices of leftover bread to use in Panzanella (below).
With a bowl of 'green soup' (spinach, potato and zucchini), also made
early morning, we had supper ready without having to heat up the kitchen.
Sunflowers are on their last legs. Picked a few smaller heads for indoors
but they too are going over now. Two of the really huge heads, still
on their sky-high stems, I've enclosed in net bags and hope to gather
seeds for planting/eating - must save them prior to nibbling visitors
such as this. . . . .
. . . . who showed up Saturday evening to enjoy a dessert of ripe figs!
A murder of crows visit the top of the fig tree daily now, noisy but fun
to watch. Robins really love the figs and come non-stop all day long,
along with many other birds, and of course the bothersome squirrels.
What's happening in your garden?
Today it's a wee bit cooler so I plan to slow-roast some tomatoes for
sauce and soups - always a tasty treat on a cold winter's day. . . . . .which
can't come soon enough for me!
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Try to stay cool,Mary. It's murderous out there in that heat. I've been staying inside for the most part, only getting out to make dr. appts. Which is necessary, of course. All your photos of the veggies are so inviting. What a great neighbor to share.
ReplyDeleteI know you grow the vegetables for their taste and nutritional value, but they LOOK beautiful in the photos.
ReplyDeleteYour weather sounds soooo uncomfortable. So far (except for just a couple days) our weather has been just perfect, which I am truly appreciating. Our garden still is waiting for sunflowers to bloom, but we are getting a few tomatoes. I am not sure what is happening with our loaded plum tree, as the green plums are falling to the ground without ripening. The fig don't ripen until fall and then critters most often get them. I love the sound of the early morning food preparations you are making. The salad looks absolutely lovely. Yummm.
ReplyDeleteDearest Mary,
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried a bat house? We have absolutely NO mosquitoes so that feels super for never being bothered by them when watering outside.
Both of us don't complain about summer's heat as we grew up in hothouses. Picking tomatoes, gherkins or English cucumbers at 120°F was no fun but you DID it and the shower afterward felt heavenly!
The media is using it this year as a distraction from other—far hotter—subjects.
Did reply to your mail and glad that you found my June 23 mail...
Hugs,
Mariette
For years, watering was just hell for me - heavy, unwieldy hoses that wouldn't coil! Enter Costco and the "fireman's hose," the kind that is a black, woven, cloth-type hose. Relief! We have 2, 100 ft. hoses and they are the easiest things to drag around. Before I coil them up, I turn the water off and empty them out. Piece of cake now! I highly recommend them.
ReplyDeleteI would not want to have to work in this kind of heat!
ReplyDeleteA glass of well chilled rosé is a real treat at the end of a hot day.
Those tomatoes look gorgeous!