Mr. Stripey TomatoI was shocked to realize it’s been five weeks since I’ve given an update on my garden, and finally I have some heirloom tomatoes. This is a variety called Mr. Stripey, and it’s one I ended up with after some of my early tomato plants froze. It’s not my favorite tomato for flavor, but I do like the looks of the striped flesh mixed with red tomatoes. I was excited to finally get these, because all my tomatoes have been slow to ripen this year. However, if the tomatoes have been a bit slow, the rest of the garden with the raised beds is producing like crazy.

I loved having tomatillos in the garden, but you have to plant two plants and there are so many tomatillos. I’m giving them away and even put a few in the freezer.

Note to self: One row of Red Russian Kale would be more than enough for next year. I just can’t use it up quickly enough.

I’m loving the white eggplants, which seem a bit sweeter than regular purple eggplants to me. I’ve been making Spicy Grilled Eggplant, a dish I loved last summer when I learned to like eggplant.

I usually cook spaghetti squash as a summer squash, picking them when they’re small and the skin is still thin. This one got away from me though, so I’ll probably bake it and eat it with parmesan and herbs. That stringy herb on the right side of the photo is summer savory, which I haven’t used at all. Anyone have ideas for using it?

I’ve got a huge number of Very Big Squash on the vine, and have already given away a few. This variety of Butternut Squash is officially my favorite winter squash.

All the herbs are doing well, but especially the basil. It’s a good thing I know how to freeze fresh basil, because I’ve already trimmed these plants three times and need to do it again. The frozen basil is wonderful for Basil Vinaigrette or to use in soup or pasta sauce in the winter.

This didn’t turn out to be the greatest photo with the sun shining in the window a bit too much, but I wanted to show one recent picking from the garden. In the photo is Red Russian Kale, Swiss Chard, French Tarragon that’s going in the freezer, lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow summer squash, a Very Big Squash, a Black Beauty eggplant and a huge pile of tomatillos.

I had good intentions of planting a few fall crops, but didn’t get it done. If you have a garden, how have your crops been doing this year?

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