Monster Tomato Plant

It may be getting cold out, but the Jolly Green Giant (and to a less impressive extent, Little Green Sprout) keep growing like crazy! I just measured, and Jolly Green Giant is 8'5". We brought most of the big green tomatoes in when we were getting dangerously close to a frost. Now we have something like 30 green tomatoes slowly but surely ripening in a brown paper bag with the help of a ripe apple, which gives off ethylene gas to help speed up the tomato ripening.

Pumpkins!

So, I had a bunch of beautiful pictures of the handmade ricotta-parmesan gnocci with rosemary that Price and I made, and a couple of the Willamette River in the morning with fog rolling over it... but I accidentally saved them to my camera instead of my memory stick, and I don't have the appropriate cable to retrieve them. Oops!

Last night we carved pumpkins!

Here comes the wet.

I bought rain pants yesterday. That should qualify me for immediate Oregon residency.

Oatmeal Cookies, Root Veggie Soup, and Tomato Update

Price made some awesome oatmeal raisin cookies.



My grandparents sent us a cute basket of baby root vegetables from Harry and David,



So I made soup! The picture looks gross, but it's actually fantastic. That white lump is sour cream.




The tomatoes are actually producing. We've eaten one big one, and a small handful of little ones. However, look at this monster plant! It's taller than Price now. It's about even with the top of the doorframe, actually!

Look Tomato Banner

Today I ate the first ripe tomato! Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes won the race. That plant had a huge growth spurt and now stands several inches taller than me. Some of the bigger Early Girl tomatoes are starting to turn red, also.

Oh- next week I'm going to be representing Hampshire College at a college fair in Corvallis. I think that's pretty funny. I bet the colleges will be in alphabetical order and my table will be next to Harvard's. I'll be getting the box of materials in the mail tomorrow. Apparently I get a big banner.

Apple & Pear Pie

Before (because I always think it's prettier before it goes in the oven):

After:

And with the extra dough and a handful of blackberries that Price gathered this morning, a little baby pie with a heart:

Not Food

Holy moly. Have you seen The Fall?


If not, you should make every effort to see it as soon as you can. Highly recommended.

Yes we have no tomatoes.

Our Sweet 100 plant is almost as tall as me now! The mark on the pink post-it shows my height.


The Early Girls are getting bigger, but still not ripening. There are at least 30 on this plant. No ripe Sweet 100s either.Jim requested scenery pictures. Here's our street. I'll try to get some prettier pictures (I swear I do travel more than 50 yards away from home).
Some wild blackberries growing down the street. They're everywhere.
Not the best picture, but what would this blog be without a food picture? This is our pizza from last night. Homemade dough with rosemary from our plant; homemade pesto with our own basil, plus lots of garlic, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese; fresh mozzarella; tomatoes; and black olives only on Price's half because olives are gross.

Sundaes on Sunday

For the record, the runny jam makes a fantastic ice cream topping. Especially on cheesecake brownie ice cream. With whipped cream.

I ate ice cream for dinner. It was gone before I thought to take a picture. (Price is being very good and eating a healthy sandwich with lots of vegetables for dessert.)

Gardenburgers! Corn! S'mores!

Says Price, "I look like a blind man playing the harmonica!"

I've been featured in a local cycling magazine

Just click on the picture to read the article.

Yay bikes!

Wanna Jam?

Jam! Jam! Jam!

Tandem Jam

Today we picked wild blackberries and made two big batches of jam. We canned 48 small jars! Pictures coming soon.

Price's Chocolate Caramel Walnut Thumbprint Cookies

Tomato Update

Rooting for team tomato. It's not clear yet which plant will ripen a tomato first: Sweet 100 or Early Girl. I'm inclined to guess Sweet 100 because the fruits are smaller, but the Early Girl tomatoes are growing faster and showed up before the Sweet 100s. Come on tomatoes, fall is coming! Go go go!

Also, the basil bush and rosemary plant are looking pretty happy:


Any creative ideas for cooking with these guys? We've made roasted red potatoes with rosemary and a very garlicky pesto. (Apparently, "garlicky" is spelled with a "k." Learn something new everyday, right?)