Summer's Finest

Many months ago, in the early days of Spring, Dan & I took a hot date to Costco and bought a three pack of already happily-blooming tomato plants, which included three different varieties. We were so excited! Time for tomato planting & harvesting, sweet family of mine! We eat a plethora of tomatoes around here- almost every night in our salads, always on burgers (remember these sliders? Still a family favorite), and often just drizzled with olive oil & kosher salt on top. In fact, I've been known to spend half of my weekly Farmer's Market budget on gorgeous (and the not so gorgeous, but cheaper and still just as tasty) heirloom tomato varieties, so the thought of going out to our own backyard to pick them was a concept too exciting for words (that is, for Mom; not so much for everyone else).

But I was nervous. I've been known to kill almost every plant we've tried to grow around here. I don't know what I'm doing wrong- I water, I whisper to them, I wait, and I give them space. Inevitably, they die because apparently finding the balance between too much water and not quite enough is impossible when you're me. My basil plant is in a complete state of rebellion- constantly trying to reflower itself and will only give me basil leaves the size of my thumb nail. How am I supposed to make pesto with thumb nail sized basil leaves? It's a disgrace to my Italian ancestors. Maybe basil rearing skills skip a generation. This is my defense.

Anyway, we were left with no choice but to forge ahead! Mom's non-green thumb was not going to keep us from trying. Even the kids got involved in the watering process. No amount of stubborn green tomatoes could kill our hopeful little spirits!

Watering tomatoes is really so much more fun in a swimsuit. Here, Ella is proving that point.

Ben takes his tomato watering quite seriously. So sometimes I "accidentally" spray him with the hose to get him squeling with sheer deight.

In defense of the green tomatoes, we had an unusually cold, gray summer here in Santa Cruz. Apparantly this does not mesh well with tomato growing. Plants really do need sunshine- who knew? And then suddenly, one day, the tomatoes all got together and decided to turn red. The most beautiful deep tomato red you've ever seen! Even though the army of snails had their way with my plants over the course of the summer, we must have done something right. Because we have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. So for now, I line them up on our kitchen windowsill and show them off like they're my personal trophy collection. Who's suddenly in the mood for a Caprese salad?



Pumpkin Update

I realize you all must be having many sleepless nights, anxiously anticipating an update on our cute little surprise pumpkins we have wildly growing. Silly me for waiting so long to give you the update you've been waiting for! I had no idea I could become so attached to a pumpkin patch because as excited as I am to harvest these cuties and proudly display them by our front door, there's a small part of me that doesn't want it to end. I think I just took a silent vow to always plant a pumpkin patch no matter where we live. From this Fall forward.

Anyway, I can't believe how orange and bumpy and imperfectly fantastic they are. Isn't orange the most cheerful color? I can't be depressed when I look at them. That magnificent orange sucks every ounce of bad mood out of my system. There are less now then when they first started growing (gophers, maybe?), and some are still relatively small (but who doesn't love the runt of the litter?), but they've got oodles of character. They aren't the perfectly round, blemish-free pumpkins you find at the store, or even from an actual pumpkin patch farm, but there's something about them that make me want to stop and stare and smile with pride (not that I've had ANYthing to do with their growth and ability to flourish). And even though entering the pumpkin patch and checking on them means inviting hundreds of goat-head thorns to attack my shoes, they leave me no choice but to shower them with love and gratitude for being so gosh-darn adorable. Can you blame me?

 

 

Surprise!

We totally have pumpkins growing wild in our side yard! What a delightful surprise! This is somewhat of a childhood dream come true for me. I mean, who WOULDN'T want their very own pumpkin patch? We have a large lot adjacent to our driveway that is the perfect size and shape for a really great garden, but we just couldn't quite get it together in a timely manner this spring. Technically, the lot belongs to our neighbor, but he seems to have forgotten it exists, because he plowed it once right after we moved in, and then left it to the weeds and goat-head thorns to run rampant.

So, we're reclaiming the land for our own, a la Far and Away. A couple weeks ago, I noticed several different large plants sprouting up and noticed beautiful big yellow flowers which, naturally, I assumed were zucchini.

After some thorough investigation, internet research, and discussions with my father, Farmer Andre, we realized that these are not zucchini or even summer squash. What could be better than zucchini growing wildly? Pumpkins, baby! Aren't they so cute?

We're so proud of our new family members!


AND, I cannot believe how quickly they are growing. I'm serious, these pumpkins are quite self-sufficient considering there's never been any watering or fertilizing or any sort of general pumpkin T.L.C. Just a couple days ago, I went out to take pictures of our new discovery, and then went out again this morning to take a couple more pictures. They have practically doubled in size in that small time span. Apparently my green thumb has become so proficiently savvy, that all I have to do is look at soil and BAM! A pumpkin patch appears.

Maybe if we play it smart, there will be time to enter our pumpkins into the County fair and win some sort of blue ribbon prize for having the prettiest and biggest pumpkins, and we will get a good laugh when people interview us for the 6 o'clock evening news or front-page newspaper articles, and ask things like, "Mr. & Mrs. Dewig, what's your secret to such fantastic pumpkins?" To which we'll reply, "We really can't divulge that information. It's an old family secret that goes way back to our ancestors who had the pumpkin growing and harvesting expertise in their blood, and they sacrificed many tears and sweat droplets just perfecting the rich annual pumpkin harvest." And then we'll have to sign hundreds of autographs and hire bodyguards and a publicist. (Alicia, I'm offering you a job).

Except you will all know that the real secret to our sudden & unexpected pumpkin achievements was a mixture of complete ignorance combined with a whole lot of standing by, watching these cute little pumpkins do their own thing, all by themselves. Go figure. Nature is so smart!

And so, I've spent much of the weekend thinking about our new-found organic pumpkin patch farm, wondering what we're going to do. Obviously, there will be pumpkin pies in our future, and I'm pretty sure I should get going on some fantastic roasted pumpkin seed recipes. What else? Is there such a thing as pumpkin soup? And I KNOW there's such a thing as pumpkin butter, so you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be looking into that. I think that perhaps the carving will begin mid-September so that we have our craft perfected come late October. We are currently accepting any and all great pumpkin ideas (please, help us figure out what to do with this new-found jackpot crop), and who knows- we'll probably even share a roasted pumpkin seed or two with you.

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