New This Week: August Week 2

Ok.... so I'll admit that I'm starting to get a bit worn out by ALLLLLL the fresh produce! (Really? Did I say that???) Well maybe just tired of the weekly photo session. This week I admit I just started washing, packing, and eating stuff instead of gathering everything together for the obligatory photo. (Hey... I had to cram the entire weekend of work into 4 hours... so take it easy on me!)

I did capture a few interesting things though:

• After one rather serious thunderstorm the cherry tomatoes were obviously out of control and threatening to take down everything around them. I did some SERIOUS pruning this weekend. Keep in mind that we only have two plants... still I filled 2 1/2 55 gallon trashcans with vines. Some of them were 15 - 20ft long. YES, that is feet. YES, I did measure. I know! I didn't believe it myself. In the process I managed to harvest a whopping 6.5 pounds of chocolate cherry tomatoes! CRAZY! This is on top of what we've already picked. I think at this point I'd estimate that we've managed to pick about 40 lbs all together. All from two tiny tomato seeds.... I know! Hard to believe. Anyway, the evil white flies have found them now, so I'm not sure how much longer they'll be going. We'll have to see. I'm sure the big trim probably didn't help much either, but at this point I figured we've certainly enjoyed them for long enough that if they don't keep going I'm not going to be terribly disappointed.

• The okra continues to be the surprise of the summer. I mentioned before that I've never grown it before... so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but I swear the stuff grows like crazy and is just producing non-stop. I don't know how tall it is "supposed" to be when it has reached full maturity, but this stuff is now taller than me! (MUCH taller than Jason as you can see in the photo.) It's not a camera angle thing. He's literally standing right next to the stalk. Wacky! Boy are the fast at setting pods too! I picked four last night and by tonight another four were ready to go. I've never seen anything like it before in my life! The only thing I'll do differently next year is to plant them all at once so that there's a consistent amount on hand. This year I planted two and then another four a few weeks later. They're all going strong, but it is taking a couple of days to get a pound or two for cooking. Next up on the okra rotation is a Cajun okra/shrimp/tomato dish. Then maybe pickled okra??? Who knows!
  
• Overheard in the Martin/Whetstone kitchen this week: "Is there any way we haven't had eggplant?" (And the answer ended up being yes... but not for long... Jason unearthed a recipe for Baba Ganoush... hmmmm we'll see how that goes.)