The Bounty Begins

The tomato plants I purchased this Spring are producing like crazy and the smaller roma size tomatoes are ripening already.  These were purchased at 1/2 of a foot high because I had missed the boat on planting seeds in time.  I am so glad I did - they are going absolutely crazy with our hot dry weather and regular waterings.  The left larger tomato is beefsteak  -  I had to remove five green ones as they were crowding each other out.  I gave four to Mom to ripen on her own and there are at least 30 more on the plant.  I wish I would have kept the plastic stick for the other kind - some kind of zebra plum tomato (*update - they are zebra plum tomatoes lol - I apparently have a memory afterall)- anyone know what kind it is? Hubby absolutely loves barely ripe tomatoes with cottage cheese so I picked these 3 for his snacking purposes.  Apparently they ripen from the inside out.  We both ate one and they are scrumptious.  After supplying both my and Mom's household with tomatoes this summer if we still have too many I will can some.  All this from two  plants!  My one jalapeno plant is also producing like crazy.  This is the third jalapeno harvested and there is another one that will be ready in a few days.  These plants definitely are paying for themselves.


In other news the only place I can buy vegetable seconds, those ones that the supermarkets refuse to carry because they are misshapen or discolored is my local farm market and they sell those at a discount.  It turns out that one of the largest Canadian supermarket chains, Loblaws, has started selling vegetable seconds in their Eastern stores.  Bravo - this is a huge advance in both reducing food waste and making vegetables more economical.  Let consumers choose if they need that perfect pepper or cucumber or if they are ok if their carrots are gnarly.  In the real world everyone with a garden knows that not every vegetable comes off the vine or out of the ground looking perfect.

Living out of a minifridge has been interesting.  I had to put some condiments like BBQ sauce in little jars with my large container going into Mom's fridge.  We have to be extremely careful not to buy anything that needs to be in the fridge that is large.  Thank goodness I have that minifreezer for our frozen goods or all my food budgeting would be going out the window.  On the renovation/household repair front hubby is re-staining parts of our fence where there has been weathering in order to keep it in good shape.  My job is to keep puppy occupied :)  I can handle that as I hate fence staining.  It is a hot nasty hornet filled job and he started at 8 am this Sunday morning to beat the heat as it is supposed to get to 30 degrees Celcius again today (approx 86 Fahrenheit). After that things will be put on hold for a week as we have a lot of company business booked into the upcoming week.  Have a great Sunday!