Posted by: foodie west
on Aug 29, 2011
It's been a strange summer, not just here in California, but all over the nation too. Even friends of mine that live in Europe have mentioned the climate has been "different" this summer. Fortunately, here on the western side of things we didn't go through the brutal heat spells much of the midwest and east coast had. In fact, it's been a downright mild summer compared to the usual central valley summer days where you are ready to make a deal with the devil for a cool delta breeze. This puts a twist in the ole gardening plan though, where by mid July a garden should be seeing plentiful bounties of summer veg and fruit. In our backyard I have what I like to call nano gardens. Basically, two raised beds 6'x4' and raised knee high with two 2x12 planks. I try to get at least 4 tomato plants in one with a little space left over in from for 2 varieties of chili peppers. and 2 Kabocha pumpkins planted in the middle trained to grow out to the side The other, this year, has acorn squash, pickling cucumber, lettuce and basil.
The tomatoes have been very shy with the oddly cool weather we have had. There are Cherokee Purple, Roma (no fruit set), Lemon Drop, and Oregon Spring. The Cherokee's set fruit first but even with our 90 degree plus days of August, they have not actually turned purple. (insert sad face emoticon here :( ).
Culinary Ramblings 
