The eggplant plant has been producing quite well. I harvested these eggplants with a mind to turn them into a caponata-like topping for bruschetta. (Which I did as I adapted Michael Psilakis' sweet-and-sour onion stew.)
The cucumber bore this hidden gem, which Josh was very concerned about picking, but it ended up not being ready to eat and we had to throw it away. :(
The cucumber plant has a lot of flowers and seems quite strong but otherwise, there don't seem to be many developments. There are always a lot of bugs on that plant though.
The zucchini plant continues only to flower, which isn't really a problem, though it would be nice to get some actual squash from it.
Overall, the tomatoes seem to be doing well but having actual harvestable fruit... it's slow going. I picked up some tomato fertilizer so hopefully that will help.
Today I also saw a squirrel in the bird feeder. I chased him away but then he came back and was climbing up on the bird feeder pole. I am very displeased.
In other news, we hit up the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. I seem to be having problems getting my corn to freeze, but I didn't really want to rush preparations for dinner and freezing a lot of corn at the same time.
We picked up a baguette from the H&F Bread stand. They've changed the way they take orders at that stand and while perhaps more organized than before, it's still not very good. I can't help but think they could still tweak it a bit. I used the bread as my bruschetta vehicle.
We got to the market late so there wasn't really that much there. We picked up sweet peppers and some kind of pole beans (two bags) from McMullan. From Indian Ridge, we got a pile of potatoes. From Burge, we got a big ole piles of okra and some beautiful turnips.
Mike and Nancy came over for dinner. I was nervous about what to make. In the end, we laid out a mix of cured meats (prosciutto de parma, genoa salami, and mild coppa from the # 48th Street Market) and some three year aged parmigiano reggiano. I also put out that caponata.
For dinner, I sous-vided short ribs (two packs) which I then reheated in a pan on very low heat and then seared in the cast iron. I made a succotash with the last of the McMullan corn, some sweet peppers, okra, garlic, pole beans, and onions. I overcooked it a little, but it was still eaten.
I cooked the fingerling potatoes for a long time with the intent to make them into mashed potatoes but in the end, I was tired and served them whole. I added some plugra unsalted butter and salt. I forgot the chives. Damn, my plant is sad!
I also got some brie from Decimal Place which they totally don't advertise. I'm looking forward to it!
We stopped off at H&F Bottle Shop -- although I was actually wandering around the Ace Hardware next store -- and Josh picked up a new bottle of Carpano Antico Formula and a bottle of BOURYE! I love bourye. And basically, I just keep saying bourye over and over again. BOURYE!
I finally dragged Josh to the East 48th Street Market. We were there to hopefully stock up on some dry goods and see what else they had. They do have a lot of prepared foods, cheeses, and frozen pastas.
They sell capers and anchovies in salt fro the case. I got a small pile of the capers since we go through kind of slowly. The anchovies, I was going to get 10 considering how large they are, but apparently 10 is about half the tin and the whole tin is $20 so I just got one of those. Both will keep forever if you keep them right.
And then, what we went there for, right? We got a 1/2 lb of the Calabrian peppers and I asked them to hook us up with some of the oil and they hooked us up. Woot! They smell awesome.
If you recall, the eggplant earthbox had the bit bountiful eggplant and two much smaller plants that were dwarfed by their big brother. When I was repotting the four new tomato plants, I also pulled the two littler eggplants out of the earthbox and planted them in their own pots. As you can see, they are doing pretty well. One is actually growing the eggplant that had started when I repotted them. The other has a new growth that I think will grow soon.
The new tomatoes, by the way, are doing okay, I think. I cut off all the yellowing or withered leaves. Well, almost all. Several anyway. I think they might do well later. Well, I'm hopeful.
The jalapeno plant is doing pretty well. I think there are something like six jalapenos growing. They look bigger than they are in this picture though. I would say perhaps 2 1/2 to 3 inches max. I read that their flavor improves after they mature and change color. Not sure that I will let them go that long but the tiny ones from Burge were so spicy, so I want them to be a little more muted.
Long live my garden! I ordered a bunch of seed catalogs to prepare for the fall and maybe next year's garden.
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