Growing food brings such rewards. There’s nothing like going out to the garden with my basket and collecting fresh items to prepare a meal. I love to pop out barefoot, early in the morning, when the ground is still wet with dew, and pick dill, kale or chard, maybe some green onion. Cleaned, chopped and sautéed, they make for a lovely omelette with some eggs fresh from the girls.

Soju has been supervising my work now that she can be out in the yard off leash.

You can see in these rows: beets, onion, chamomile, two kinds of kale, dill, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, leeks, beans, marigolds, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, peas, Swiss chard, parsley and oregano. Beyond that my tomato forest, peppers, squash, melons, corn and sunflowers.

Josh made me a wonderful cucumber trellis last year which I have companion planted this season with beans, cucumbers, nasturtium, radishes and marigolds. These last three are supposed to help ward off pests. We shall see… Last year my cucumbers grew beautifully up over the arch until the squash bugs got to them and all at once it seemed they turned yellow and died off.

I planted more than 45 tomatoes so I had to come up with a new trellis system. I put three tposts per row and connected them with welded wire fencing we had leftover from other projects. Then I tied a piece of twine from each plant up to the top of the fencing. I’ve been twisting the plant around the twine as it grows, encouraging it to grow towards the fence where I’ll be able to tie it to the fencing more securely. So far, so good. I’m dreaming of Caprese salads, tomato sauce, homemade ketchup, tomato jam…

What’s your favorite tomato based recipe?