OT Might be problems with our food chain this summer or fall, so thinking about planting garden

These are all from our back yard, Anna Apples (not many left at this time of the season), Lemons (we have 6 lemon trees, and they produce year-round) and wild tomatoes. Unfortunately, this year is not a fruit year for our Fuerte Avocado (they fruit every other year). These tomatoes are really tasty.

 

I haven't had a good tomato since the 1950s. The skins are too tough and there's no tomato aroma. To top it off, the newer ones really have no flavor. Kind of reminds me of the problem with California strawberries.

 

That's why I like these, as I said, they are wild, so it's not the perfect round, beautiful ones that are grown to be easy to sell in the supermarkets. It is just a wild tomato plant that is overtaking a portion of our yard.

This is what it looks like in the yard:





Last 2 years, I was clearing fallen trees and runaway bushes that were taking over this area - and found this plant there, left it alone - and while it is not completely clear around it, removing the bush really let it find a place to expand.

 

I get great tomatoes in garden. Not ripe yet. I pick them, rinse under the hose and eat as is.

 

Our family never called such domestic plants as wild. We always called them volunteers. The exception being blackberries which seem truly wild.

 

I like them very cold, cored, sliced in half, covered with salt and pepper and eaten raw. I also love them grilled. Another favorite is sliced placed on a lightly toasted sliced length wise, piece of Italian or French bread. After toasting place tomato slices on the bread and cook slightly. Then place cooked slices of bacon on the tomato covered by thin slices of cheese. Bake until the cheese melts. Eat with a knife and fork to avoid a mess. Some people eat tomato with cottage cheese but I'm not crazy about that.
I once ground up some tomato and some vegetables such as carrot to make my own version of V-8. Added a dash of Tabasco and wow.

 

Looks like herbs including Italian parsley.

 

and Cilantro and basil. Gonna get oregano so I can make chimichiri all day erryday

 

To go with Tabasco, Serrano, Jalapeno

 

Orange bell pepper and Brandywine tomato, neither of which looks like Carmelo.

 

How did you get Melo to hang out with you???

 

What are you talking about? These are clearly Melo, skinny Melo side by side.

 

Aren't brandywines heirlooms?

 

Yes

 

Okay. Had to get in on the action again. Some updates to the garden. Strawberries had a rough start but have been looking better as of late. Beans have all but died. I think they dried out too quickly on me when I missed a watering a few weeks back and I haven't been able to get them to recover. Im getting overwhelmed with Zuchinni, Cucumbers and peppers and the tomatoes are goign to be overwhelming soon also I can see.

But What I cant wait for is the watermelon!!



So I'm in the studio the other night working on some music and Alisha comes in and says I need to get outside now. Damn apple tree split and fell. It had been rotted inside(though way more than I realized) with birds nesting in a hole. Luckily I see the birds nest is cobb webbed out, so they have moved before this happened.

 

Just harvested 3 tomatoes. A ton pending. What do I do when I am not going to gym or to volunteer shift to give away excess? Leave tomatoes on all my neighbors' porches?

A ripe pumpkin. Soup, stuffed, or roasted as vegetable. Not sure.

Kale, chard, lettuce continue. They are pretty year round.

Beans and corn disappointing. Apples pending. Lemons coming out my ears.

 

We had an old apple tree in the yard of our last house. I was afraid it was rotting and would fall on our house so I cut it down. Damn thing was healthy throughout and I just cut down an apple tree that grew gravensteins, my favorite cooking apple. Damn, damn, damn.
Love the size of your garden. Also, love hearing about the zucchini and especially the tomatoes. Not wild about peppers although my wife loves them she especially loves cayenne and jalapeno. Never had much luck with bell peppers or other types.
We grew lots of bush beans simply because I was too lazy to build a trellis. We use to have raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, peas, yellow crook necks, slicing cucumbers, zucchinis, string beans, corn, tomatoes, parsley, basil, mint, chives, shallots, green onions, red leaf lettuce, sage, concord grapes, apples, pumpkins and acorn squash. Occasionally we would grow some Korean vegetables. One time we tried our luck at Italian egg plant but can't remember how that turned out. We had hard clay with gravel mixed in over many years for soil but my wife, mother-in-law and I spent what I can only describe as countless hours over many years slowly digging all the rocks out of our soil and working in fertilizers, lots of rich compost and lots and lots of peat moss until the soil was great. The grapes loved the hard packed clay and rocks for some odd strange reason and they thrived giving us tons of grapes off one 30 year old plant.
This house is a much more expensive one with an even larger lot but it's packed with trees, landscape bushes and a small lawn in the front and a small lawn in the back also a large deck and a patio. Almost no place for any kind of garden. We are able to plant just a few things though. A very few things.

I really miss gardening, one of my favorite pass times. I also miss camping, fishing and traveling none of which I can now do.

 

It's impossible for me to have too many tomatoes and I use lemons every day. I put them in my coke when I was allowed coke. Squeeze copious quantities over all my seafood including oysters on the half shell. Squeeze some lemon juice in my ice water. You can't drink a Mexican beer without a wedge of lemon. My wife always uses it in her hefeweizen. Use it whenever we make a margarita. Homemade salsa. So many uses. We always have lemons on hand and often have limes on hand.

I've always wanted to try pumpkin soup. We were always afraid of failure when we thought about pumpkin soup so we either used it on our front porch on Oct. 31 or gave it to neighbor kids.