Crop status - we still have plenty of beets, chard and kale, with the squash and cukes coming on strong. Bush beans now join the daily picking, as well as cherry tomatoes. There are lots of eggplant to deal with, sweet and hot peppers are sizing up and showing their true colors. And of the 200 or so tomatoes, I've now picked and sampled and saved seeds from about 60 different ones - so maybe 30% of my plantings.
Eventually I will get around to posting some pics and detailed tasting impressions.....but so far I've found flavors to be a bit off in intensity - could be due to the heat (very stressed plants), the need to water so frequently, or just the particular varieties in the case of the Dwarfs I've tasted to date.
Highlights, taste-wise, are a Cherokee Chocolate X ??? cross (just a small round red, but tasty), Mexico Midget, Hege's German Pink (though not as good as my first growing of the variety a few years ago), Polish, Burgundy Traveler, Great White, Tiger Tom, Sungold (of course), Dwarf Pink Passion (one of two - the other one not so good), Chocolate Champion, Fred's Tie Dye, Dainty, Boronia, Loaves and Fishes, Loxton Lad, Dwarf Wild Fred, Striped Tidy, Tasmanian Pink, and Adelaide Festival.
Much more to come! I will try to add some pics to this post later on today.
By the way, the Southern Season cooking school class on Sunday was just great - thanks to Marilyn for the chance to do it and to Alex Hitt for being such a great partner in crime! The tomatoes he brought/supplied were spectacular - and I am delighted to note how highly he spoke of Cherokee Green, Cherokee Chocolate, Stump of the World and Lucky Cross (all varieties I suggested he try, and supplied seeds to him last year). Great food, conversations, audience (nearly a full house!). And now we are stocked with our favorite Balsamic Vinegar for the year (yes we did some shopping!).
Next up - series of Tomato dinners at Zely and Ritz - but that's for another blog entry....