Breakfast In the Greenhouse

Ah, vacation at last! I, Gillian, have been in an accelerated nursing program all summer and it's only now, in September, that I have a couple of weeks off. Perfect timing for food preservation! If only the tomatoes would ripen...


None of MY tomatoes are ripe yet, but the two CSAs and our next-door neighbors are providing some...for example, the ones in my breakfast salad along with Sunroot Gardens radicchio, Neighbor Dan's famous cucumbers that are trying to take over his whole yard, and fresh basil.


I've been thinking about our list of useful homesteading skills. Alyssa and Dan can build and repair anything; I can make all the jam and pickles anyone could want and preserve them safely; Alyssa and I can make quilts (like the one you can see here that will be finished on Monday!); Theresa and I can knit and crochet; Jenn can identify lots of edible and medicinal plants and can also shovel with amazing skill and speed. Dan can do all sorts of things with a chainsaw, Alyssa can sew her own clothes, all of us are good bread-bakers, Jenn knows a million games that don't require any equipment, Theresa and Jenn can sing and play instruments, and I can make paper for all the letters we'll write on long autumn nights. What are we missing?

Thursday dinner

I, Gillian, said "I've given up hope. We're having fried green tomatoes for dinner."

Jenn said "That sounds better than hopelessness usually does." (Or something like that. We're always misquoting Jenn.)

And we did, in fact have some pretty good fried green tomatoes for dinner--with basil aioli, stewed green beans and sunburst squash, and Neighbor Dan's cucumbers. And I did feel despondent while watering the garden this morning because I have hundreds of green tomatoes and not one of my full sized tomatoes has ripened yet...and it seems to be fall already!


But I secretly have not given up hope, even though the weather forecast puts our high around 70 for the rest of the week. I've been harvesting a small handful of red and yellow currant tomatoes daily, and State Fair, an enormous Brandywine tomato that will be the biggest I ever grew if it ever turns red, was blushing just slightly pink today...