To most gardeners in the Lower 48, prepare to laugh at me. But all you Pacific Northwesterners will surely understand.
This week, when I waltzed back home after a two-week road trip, my elder daughters presented me with the tomato crop - minus the six or eight they ate themselves - that they harvested while I was gone:
This, my friends, is an amazing bounty!
This summer's fiery temperatures (in the 80s) and incessant sunshine (we actually saw the sun in June and July) created perfect conditions for this heat- loving fruit and pushed both the quantity of tomatoes and the timetable for their ripening into the hot zone.
In comparison, I often have to wait till October for the first red tomatoes, and the entire season's output might equal what you see here.
In this magical summer of 2015, not only have we blasted all the normal records for PNW tomato production out of the water, but the vines are still loaded with oncoming fruit. If the weather holds, we could be looking at dozens more!
Okay, you hot-weather tomato champs. Go ahead. Shake your heads at the absurdity that is Seattle vegetable farming.
As for me, I shall turn a few more cartwheels of joy for this unexpected August miracle, and celebrate with my favorite sandwich.
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More stories about my food gardens, farm-to-table dining, and those lovely home-grown tomatoes:
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