Thursday, October 11, 2007

This is October?

Two days ago, I was running the air conditioner - and had been, for several days. Normally October is my month to battle towards my goal of not turning the heat on until November 1st. Normally, I lose. But still, it's usually one of my utility-bill break months, with minimal heat and no AC running.

Tonight it's cool but we still have all the windows open.

Today I picked another half-dozen very ripe wonderfully fresh and tasty tomatoes from my garden. One in particular was absolutely perfect: That heady fresh-tomato smell, the skin a clear deep red, the shape a perfect orb the size of a large orange. I used it to make myself a cheese, tomato and fresh-picked basil sandwich for dinner. A mist of EVO, some fresh ground sea-salt and pepper, all on some fresh nutty whole grain bread. Oh yeah. That's the perfect summer sandwich.

Except it's FALL.

And not only are my tomato plants covered in ripening fruit, they have new blossoms on them.

It's October. OCTOBER.

In other news, that damned rabbit ate all my fall broccoli plants. I definitely need to add a rabbit-proof fence to my gardening plans.

4 comments:

EGE said...

Dang, just when I thought you'd given up on this blog in favor of your other one -- I actually removed the link to this one yesterday!

Wish I had ripe tomatoes. But then, we didn't even have any when it was really summer. I'm telling you, this place is death...

Leslie said...

Oh, please don't give up on me! When I have a brain that's not shut down by family health crisis and other such insanity, I'll be blogging more. Well, what will really be happening is that I'll be DOING more and have something to blog about other than "well I did a couple of loads of laundry today..."

I couldn't live in place where I couldn't grow ripe tomatoes. I tell you, you need to move to this house next door - they're desperate to sell at this point! Nothing like sharing an IPA with a neighbor...

YardbirdSax said...

I must admit, it is rather disturbing to see our roses blooming for a third time this year! I may even have to mow the lawn again at this rate. Makes me want to do more to save the planet, how 'bout you?

There certainly are few things better than a nice, fresh, ripe tomato from your back yard. Almost makes me want to see if I inherited my grandfather's gardener genes! We might have to get some tips at a later time. :)

Chaya said...

yardbird, don't let the folks who fuss and fret over their tomatoes fool you: Yes, they probably get better/faster/bigger tomatoes, but it's also perfectly possible to buy some starter plants, stick them in the ground, water them on occasion (though mine have been pathetically underwatered this year despite our hideous drought) and harvest the benefits. Get some cages though - the taller the better.