The Garden Takes Off!

Apparently, this year I’m doing something right.

My garden – as you may remember, two tall raised beds in our sunny front yard – has exploded into life. Everything is flowering and starting to bear fruit. The two eggplants have beautiful purple blossoms, and the yellow squash have huge golden ones. (See Unfussy Epicure on Facebook for that photo.) I actually planted the yellow squash for their flowers more than their fruit: I want to cook with squash blossoms, and they’re almost impossible to find for sale.

Some of the crops are just about at the end of their season. The lettuce, mostly planted under a leaning trellis for just a touch of shade, is glorious right now – but with temperatures in the high 90s, we’d better eat it fast before it bolts and gets bitter. (The romaine in the foreground above is already getting a little bitter, but combined with the other lettuces it’s not too strong yet.)

Peas also don’t care for heat. The photo on the left, with the pretty flower, is from May. The photo on the right is from yesterday, taken just before I picked all those pea pods. I love how you can see purple remnants of the blossom at the top, and sometimes the bottom, of each pod. I waited a little too long to harvest the peas, so some of them are a bit tough – but with a few seconds of microwave steaming, they’re perfectly juicy and sweet.

And, of course, I am most excited by the tomatoes – the home gardener’s pride and joy. More than any other crop, tomatoes taste different when harvested from one’s own plants. I’m not sure why. Even farmer’s market tomatoes don’t quite reach the pinnacle of flavor of home-grown.

All my plants have set fruit in the last few weeks – most pretty abundantly. Pictured above are Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, my very favorite cherries. Bright orange and very sweet, with a touch of tropical fruit in the flavor, they are nearly impossible to get from the garden into the kitchen; most will be eaten before they make it inside. I also found a Stupice this year – an ultra-early variety from Russia with terrific flavor. Other plants I’m especially excited about are Flamenco, developed right here in Albuquerque; Cherokee Purple, which bears the tastiest tomatoes I’ve ever had; and White Cherry, which is, well, a nearly white cherry tomato. I’m very curious to see how that one tastes.

I only planted seven tomato plants this year – last year I went for 10 – and I think the reduced crowding has been good for the plants. Look how much they’ve grown in less than a month!

The photo on the left was taken May 22; the one on the right was taken June 11. The difference is amazing to me. We fertilized a lot when we put the plants in this year, which probably helped. Also, if you look carefully in the center of the left-hand photo, you can see a couple of pots buried in the ground. Those are kind gifts from my neighbor Kenny. They are full of horse manure. The plan is to water through the pots (he said every time, but I only do it a couple of times a week; most of my watering is automatic, thank heavens) and thus fertilize with, umm, horse-manure tea.

I can’t tell you for certain that it works, but it sure as heck isn’t hurting! So far, this year’s is the most beautiful garden I’ve ever had. I sure hope it stays that way through the summer’s heat – I bought two market umbrellas to try and cool things down for the plants, though they don’t seem to be wanting the shade yet. I can’t wait to share some squash blossom, eggplant, and tomato recipes with you!

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