You're like me....a tomato a day keeps the doctor away! lol

Hope it was marvelous and that all the others are too.

Before long, they'll be ripening quickly, and then you can have one at every meal!

Dawn

YOU TEASE!!! I'm so jealous....and happy for you at the same time. That means mine can't be far behind.

So...tonite we had for dinner our first summer squash! Decadently dredged in corn meal and fried! YUM! I know it's not the healthiest....but it darn sure tasted really good. We had that with a garlic butter rotisserie chicken. The only thing missing was a fresh grown tomatoe...

This is why we fret, worry, tend and obsess...THIS is what it IS all about! Yea for you!

Paula

I have had broccoli, chinese cabbage, lettuce, spinach, green cabbage, sugar snap peas, green beans, pepper, and a hand full of baby tomatoes, but I want a BLT.

I am trying to clean out the freezer to make room for new stuff, just in case I get some. LOL Tonight I had a one pan meal. I took a big half sheet pan and piled green beans on one end, on the other part of the pan, I alternated corn on the cob and that pecan smoked sausage from Walmart. I sliced up lots of garlic and put on top of the green beans then drizzled olive oil over the veggies and baked it in the oven. I had cole slaw to go with it and we never did take it out of the refrigerator. We just pigged-out on our one pan meal.

I had planned to cook outside in the dutch oven where I normally cook potatoes in the center and after they cook awhile, I stand corn on the cob on end around the edge with a sausage between each one and let it all bake together. That was my plan, but the rain made that a bad idea. Oh well, I think I have two more packages of last years corn that I need to use up.

I didn't have quite enough green beans picked so I had to run outside and pick a few more. I find I cook a lot like that in the summer time, garden to table in minutes.

I haven't had any squash yet. I expected to have because I could see it forming, but none has grown. It grows to 4 inches or so, then rots. Even my Zucchetta seems to be having pollination problems. I probably won't be able to keep up with it once it starts, but it is starting slow. The winter squash plants are taking over my garden.

I have picked my first squash and cukes. Got another baggie full of sugar snaps from the short row I have. Thought they would be finished the plants pulled by now. Still blooming and setting. I get enough most days I can snack all evening in the garden and some the next day on them. Sure good. My first tomato may be soon. As I have one starting to blush it looks like. Jay

Oh, you guys, your other veggies sound so delicious! Carol, those green beans and sausage sound mouth watering to me. I'll have to try it when my bush beans are ready to harvest. Yummmmm.

I tried really hard to have good tomatoes this year, and it has paid off! I just didn't really know how to grow them before cuz I just stuck them in the ground and they were basically on their own. Didn't do any organic fertilizing, wasn't cautious about soil, watering, but growing in containers has proven much more productive for me. I was very careful with my containers, washing them well in soap and bleach to sterilize them. Dawn, I don't know how you manage that with the number of the containers you grow in.

Paula, I LOVE summer squash (not a big fan of winter squash). I tell myself that I am using Canola oil with 0 trans fats in it to fry mine in.....and it must work cuz I eat a lot of it fried.

I started my tomatoes fairly late, too, but they seemed to move right along. I think I planted them around April 15 or a few days later maybe. We had such cool spring weather. They were very small plants from Horn's. So from date of planting to harvest is about 61 or 62 days, thereabout. I saw that Rutgers has a 75 DTM and Jet Star has a 69-80 DTM. So, they produced a little bit early but not extraordinarily early. Probably well within the DTMs for southern grown tomatos.

Anyway, I'm excited and thank you all for helping me down the golden tomato path!

Susan

I've had the same stuff from the garden that Carol has had, except I don't grow Chinese Cabbage, and we've had strawberries, blackberries and lots of tomatoes. (Carol, you'll have that first BLT soon!) We eat BLTs about 3 days a week, but I usually use Turkey Bacon on at least 2 of those days. We've also had one batch of new potatoes, and every now and then I pull an onion and use it as needed even though they aren't mature yet.

We're having a pepper, tomato and plum explosion this week. I have approximately 23 lbs. of plums sitting on the kitchen counter to process this week, unless I send some more to DS at work on Friday, and I might. I gave him several lbs. last week, and anything he takes to the fire station is devoured the same day. I won't have a problem with processing the 23 lbs. of plums, but the tree that produced them has produced 37 lbs. so far and still has at least 12 or 15 more lbs. I need to pick today or tomorrow. Then, there's a peach tree and two more plum trees heavily loaded and the second tree's plums are beginning to ripen, and the peaches are as well. I'm not complaining because there's so many years there are no plums or peaches, but it sure is a lot of plums to process at one time. (And in case you're thinking I didn't thin them, I did...I removed 20 to 25 plums for every one that I left on the trees.)

I hope to get the fruit finished pretty quickly because the peppers and tomatoes are about to hit the kitchen in large numbers.

We're getting more squash than we can eat, so I'm freezing that as well. When it rains, it pours.

Tim is going out of town in a few days....do y'all see how he timed his business trip so he'd be away at the peak of the June harvest? He has an uncanny knack for knowing when to leave town. lol (I'm not mad---I'm laughing about it.) As heavy as the June harvest is, it's a piece of cake compared to August or September.

I think July will be relatively easy because by then the fruit will be behind me, although I'll likely be digging potatoes which is a bit time-consuming, and harvesting corn if it pollinates. It is tasseling now and the temps are pretty hot, so I'm still not sure we'll get a good corn crop. (Won't the raccoons be disappointed!)

Dawn

I just ate my 3rd Juan Flammee for breakfast. SO far it's my only ripe tomato other than the cherries.

I also had a handful of fresh picked strawberries and blackberries. I LOVE summer!

You guys are making me jealous....again....with all your other fruits and veggies. When I was very young, we had a couple of plum trees in the yard, and my dad had a garden packed full of veggies - tomatos, corn, squash, okra, beans, onions. My mom canned everything. What we didn't grow back then, she bought in bushel baskets and canned. They sold a lot of fruit and veggies by the bushel back then. That was when they delivered our milk in glass containers, and the Jewel Tea man brought us all kinds of cleaning supplies, spices, etc. I really miss the simplicity of life back then. It was hard, but simple.

I should be getting the cherry tomatoes - Supersweet 100s before long - there are so many blooms on it. I give them a daily shake along with the other two. Lime Green Salad is getting blooms as is Victorian Dwarf. Remy has some other really nice heirloom seeds that I'd like to try, too. The thing I like about her seeds is that they are all $1.00 for around 16 seeds a packet. That is plenty for me.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: The Sample Seed Shop

Thank you for the link!!! I think I will order...EVERYTHING.