and a few others at the market. The seeds I am most looking forward to are the ground cherries, which turned out to be a variety of husk tomato that reportedly tastes like a cross between a strawberry and pineapple, with the consistency of a tomato. I cannot WAIT to use them to make a delicious pie.I will take this opportunity to stroll down memory lane and reminisce about last years bountiful harvest with some long-stored pictures of our beautiful above ground garden.
By far, our most successful crop of the season were the tomatoes. We had five varieties as I
recall...100 cherry tomatoes, juliettes, and two typical slicing size tomato plants, but the crown jewel of our collection were the black chocolate cherry tomatoes.
They took forever to mature and ripen, but they were so delicious when they finally did. They were sweet and rich with very light acidity and had a great rusty-brown color that looked like a milk chocolate covered cherry-hence the name, of course. This particular plant has a harrowing back story. When we realized that we would need to re-pot it into a bigger vessel, the stalk broke, nearly right in half above the root. I was sure that the little guy was a goner, but we set it back up, put a splint on it and plants it as deep into the new put as possible. After about four
excruciating days of waiting and googling, the leathery green leaves finally began to perk up and after about a week and a half, he was as good as new. This particular plant was also the longest-lived of all of our tomatoes, producing a few delicious little fruits even after the first frost.
All of our plants last year produced some fruit, but none of them were nearly as healthy, productive, and easily cared for as our tomatoes. That is why we have chosen to focus on tomatoes this year, and purchase most of our other fresh seasonal produce from the farmer's market.
The eggplant plant was probably our second best vegetable. It only made three eggplants, but
they were each beautiful and delicious. It was hard to tell when the eggplants were ripe for picking, so we ended up leaving them on for a long time. If we had picked them right away, I think we would have gotten more fruits.
One slight disappointment was our squash plant. We got one green and one yellow crook neck. Each was slow to produce any fruit and each only produced a couple. The green zucchini plant was especially poor. The fruits were lovely and delicious, but I would have liked more. I think they may have just needed more
room to grow and spread. We did indulge in some squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese. These little delicacies were almost good enough to be worth the effort to grow the whole entire plant, but not quite.
By far, our most successful crop of the season were the tomatoes. We had five varieties as I
recall...100 cherry tomatoes, juliettes, and two typical slicing size tomato plants, but the crown jewel of our collection were the black chocolate cherry tomatoes.They took forever to mature and ripen, but they were so delicious when they finally did. They were sweet and rich with very light acidity and had a great rusty-brown color that looked like a milk chocolate covered cherry-hence the name, of course. This particular plant has a harrowing back story. When we realized that we would need to re-pot it into a bigger vessel, the stalk broke, nearly right in half above the root. I was sure that the little guy was a goner, but we set it back up, put a splint on it and plants it as deep into the new put as possible. After about four
excruciating days of waiting and googling, the leathery green leaves finally began to perk up and after about a week and a half, he was as good as new. This particular plant was also the longest-lived of all of our tomatoes, producing a few delicious little fruits even after the first frost.All of our plants last year produced some fruit, but none of them were nearly as healthy, productive, and easily cared for as our tomatoes. That is why we have chosen to focus on tomatoes this year, and purchase most of our other fresh seasonal produce from the farmer's market.
The eggplant plant was probably our second best vegetable. It only made three eggplants, but
they were each beautiful and delicious. It was hard to tell when the eggplants were ripe for picking, so we ended up leaving them on for a long time. If we had picked them right away, I think we would have gotten more fruits.One slight disappointment was our squash plant. We got one green and one yellow crook neck. Each was slow to produce any fruit and each only produced a couple. The green zucchini plant was especially poor. The fruits were lovely and delicious, but I would have liked more. I think they may have just needed more
room to grow and spread. We did indulge in some squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese. These little delicacies were almost good enough to be worth the effort to grow the whole entire plant, but not quite.We had a great year for basil, too. We had two basil plants, one of which I grew from a seed, the other purchased as a seedling. I love fresh basil and James and I enjoyed two nice batches of fresh pesto in addition to having the fresh leaves on hand for pizza, pasta, and anything else we wanted to add it to. A summer garden without fresh basil is a disgrace! It is so delicious and so easy to grow, there really is no reason not to have some all year long. You just have to be sure to prune 
the flowers when they start to sprout so that your plant doesn't go to seed. Keep it pruned, and it will grow into a hearty bush by the end of the summer!
the flowers when they start to sprout so that your plant doesn't go to seed. Keep it pruned, and it will grow into a hearty bush by the end of the summer!We also came across some beautiful purple Thai basil at the ol' farmers market. We are suckers for fresh herbs. It was lovely and grew very well, even after having been blown off the porch during a storm. The only trouble with something that unique is that it is hard to find an opportunity to use it all. We made a few Asian dishes, like lettuce wraps, to pair it with, but we always seemed to forget to bring some along whenever we went to have Pho. It would have been perfect shredded into a steaming hot bowl of delicious Vietnamese beef soup. Maybe this year we will try it, if we find some more of that basil! 
And finally, we have our little jalapeno pepper plant. The poor thing had a sorry showing all through the blazing hot peak of summer. It stayed green and seemed to have perpetually budding and dying blossoms and only produced a few small peppers from time to time. We had actually given up on it, but we continued to water it and care anyway. Then, finally in late august after we moved, the thing completely came to life. Each little branch lit up with blossoms and by the time fall arrived, we had more jalapenos than we knew what to deal with. It was an especially welcome harvest in light of the big pepper contamination issue that occurred late last summer. We were the only place in town with fresh jalapenos for a couple of weeks! Luckily, no one ever found out
and we were able to keep out peppers all for ourselves.
And finally, we have our little jalapeno pepper plant. The poor thing had a sorry showing all through the blazing hot peak of summer. It stayed green and seemed to have perpetually budding and dying blossoms and only produced a few small peppers from time to time. We had actually given up on it, but we continued to water it and care anyway. Then, finally in late august after we moved, the thing completely came to life. Each little branch lit up with blossoms and by the time fall arrived, we had more jalapenos than we knew what to deal with. It was an especially welcome harvest in light of the big pepper contamination issue that occurred late last summer. We were the only place in town with fresh jalapenos for a couple of weeks! Luckily, no one ever found out
and we were able to keep out peppers all for ourselves. It was a fun an exciting summer. I really loved tending the plants and enjoying their tasty bounty. I'm not sure if it is the small scale production of a home garden or what, but vegetables from your own garden (or someone else's garden for that matter) are just some much more flavorful, sweet, and delicious. With any luck, we'll start our seeds this weekend and have our seedlings out basking in the sun next month. I can't wait!
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