We had such a good tomato and pepper year in my raised-bed gardens!
We still have many peppers flourishing, and they will continue to do so until first frost. I plan to dig up a couple of the tastiest and most productive plants to transfer them to indoor pots for winter before we drop below 40 overnight. This is the time of year I always have to watch the overnight forecasts very closely.
This was my best tomato year since I moved from New Mexico, where I (accidentally) grew enough beefsteaks to supply a grocery store. This year, I had enough grape tomatoes, rainbow blend cherry tomatoes and chocolate cherry tomatoes to stock a grocery store. I grew enough Romas (very difficult in this region) all at one time to make a pot of spaghetti sauce. And I had salad after salad all summer long. Lizard doesn't like tomatoes on or in anything but sauce, which means more for me!
The squirrels discovered my late-season cherry tomatoes when I didn't harvest them fast enough, and now I have to keep a constant eye out to keep the critters from ravaging my raised-bed gardens. I try to make sure I harvest before the tomatoes turn cherry red now, and I've kept a continual blanket of cayenne pepper powder, cinnamon and black pepper on the raised bed gardens. I ripen the not-quite-red tomatoes in the southeast-facing window, which gets the most sun of all our windows.
Got only one cucumber this year, so no home-grown fridge pickles this time around. Thankfuly, the grocery store has a healthy selection. Does anyone else think veggies from our own gardens just taste fresher???
The big surprise of the year for me so far are my Brussels sprouts. I planted from seed last year and got nothing but leaves (which are good in salads and most excellent steamed for stir-fry). This year, I bought a mature plant, which I also thought was not going to be productive until the last couple of weeks, when heads began forming. !!! I didn't know this last year, but these plants will survive up to 10 degrees, and the colder they get in the evenings, the sweeter the heads will be. I like them steamed with just butter, but I also like them steamed with garlic and parmesan. I cannot wait until I get to try my first-ever home-grown Brussels sprouts!!!
_(cropped).jpg)
