Sunday, October 13, 2024

Last of the Summer Vine

 Oh friends. Sad days. In my fridge, I have one last vine ripened tomato from Albert. Just the one. I'd bought 8 or 9 the last time I stopped in. I can't remember because he was telling me that this was the last of the produce for the summer and that he was closing up shop. I was telling him that I really was grateful for the produce over the summer. I bought A LOT from him, and he was always grateful for the business. I tried to tell him that there was no other place that could match him for price OR quality. I was grateful for him. And while we were thanking each other, he was saying, "Here...you might as well take these and, this one has a blemish..." tossing in apples and tomatoes and onions. 

It's like that when I stop in there. I go for one thing specifically, and walk out of there with a more than I ever intended to buy, but it is all good stuff. 

Anyways, so there it is. Every morning since tomatoes started coming on, I've been having a thick slice of tomato on toast, with a smear of mayonnaise and a hearty sprinkling of fresh ground black pepper. Every morning. 

Now I'm down to the last of it. I can get tomatoes from Aldi's, of course, but it is not the same. They are a whole different texture, not allowed to ripen on the vine. They are not the tomatoes of summer. 

I figure that I've got 3, maybe 4 days out of this tomato, then I'll just have to admit the truth. Summer is over. 

I think that we had a hard frost Thursday morning down at the new house (it was fine in town). But my basil is black. Presto, no pesto.  My morning glories are wilted and shriveled and no longer glorious. Looks like they're done for the season too.

We have three days coming up, with the highs only reaching the 40s and the lows in the 30s. They are rainy days, all of them, and there may be some snow. 

I miss summer already. 

49 comments:

  1. Winter arrived for you so quickly, it seems. Pesto is a bit topical for me today. I like the sound of your breakfast. After cereal I might try that myself, except the tomato won't be very good either.

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    1. After your cereal!~ That made me laugh. Tim is just as unchanging in his breakfast as I tend to be. He eats cornflakes with 1/2 a banana.

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  2. I was just mourning the end of summer too! Close to frost expected this week, so I’ll be harvesting the last of my tomatoes and peppers, plus the celery… I agree with you- there’s nothing like the summer tomatoes!🥰As for pesto- I still have tons in the freezer, so I don’t know why I always plant so much basil!?🤷‍♀️😅

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    1. And oddly, I never knew that you could freeze it. Thanks, Rigmor!

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  3. Ooops- Rigmor commenting above!

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    1. Probably because basil is in the mint family. Don't blame yourself. That stuff spreads like crazy!!

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  4. We have maybe 6-8 smallish tomatoes on our vine. Kind of orange and I am letting them sit until Wednesday because THURSDAY we are in for a cold cold night. My pepper plant could not look healthier but since the peppers are the exact same color as the profuse leaves, I will probably have to pull the whole thing out to find them. And I bet there are a lot, lol. That those peppers have been crazy. I have a freezer full.

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    1. I bought a half bushel from Albert and chopped them up for the freezer.

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  5. There is something about garden tomatoes. As for weather, we are getting just about the same. I think there is better weather coming later in the week. We don’t have the furnace on yet; I wonder if we’ll make it through to the better weather without succumbing.

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    1. If I'm cold, we have heaters in each room. Very nice, because you can heat the room you're in. We've also got a wood stove insert in the fireplace, which is much more efficient than just using the fireplace. We try to hold off using the central heat until we have no choice.

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  6. Darn. That was me. /AC

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    1. Tim says better days are coming, but he does plan to get out there and do some hunting at the beginning of the week when it's cold.

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  7. Our weather is just about perfect. After two hurricanes in less than three weeks we are happy with just plain sunshine. We had over 15 inches of rain in a 12-hour period, so the ground is very wet. Hard to think of winter being there already but I guess it is that time. There are large tomato fields here and four packing houses shipping them out of Ruskin but you are right they are picked green. The imperfect ones are fed to cattle.

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    1. Debby says "Moooooooooooooooo!"

      trying to imagine 15 inches of rain in half a day. I imagine you ARE wet!

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  8. I'm still getting tomatoes out of the garden. I also brought in some green tomatoes so I could fry some one more time. Supposed to be under 40 tonight.

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    1. I cannot believe that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have us only with nights in the thirties! Hard to wrap my head around.

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  9. Back when I had a garden I had a tomato sammie for lunch every day. Every day.

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    1. I just love them. Sometimes, I take one slice of the toast fresh from the toaster and put a thin slice of cheddar on it, toss it in the microwave for 15 seconds while I'm putting mayo on the other toast slice. I put the tomato on top of the mayo, grind some pepper over it, and take the other piece of the toast with cheese just melty enough and put it on top. Oh man. I'm really going to miss my sandwiches.

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  10. I grieve for tomatoes like the ones you get from Albert, those that come from the grocery store are not worth eating.

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    1. There is SUCH a difference, isn't there? I'll miss my tomato toast.

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  11. Wow!@ You guys get snow now. That's incredible.

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  12. It's a possibility on Monday night. No accumulation though.

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  13. Goodness me, your temperatures have plummeted - summer to winter with hardly anything in between.

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    1. I don't expect fall is over. It's just been interrupted. I am sure we have more nice days in the offing, and this will make us mindful to savor those days.

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  14. It was a bad year here for our tomatoes. Summer was way too late arriving so now I have a whole load of green tomatoes on the vine that will never ripen.

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    1. The weather has been strange, that's for sure. We had such a dry stretch that a lot of things did poorly, esp. on the eastern side of the state.

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  15. You can't buy fresh vegetables in the supermarkets. We had a brilliant tomato crop. Growing them in the ground with lots of fym.

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    1. Not all of us are blessed with the green thumbs of Northsider Dave, that's for sure. Have you ever had anything that didn't grow?

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  16. When I retire, I'll need to go to the Farmer's Market. I bought an alleged vine-ripened Beefsteak tomato. Just like my Dad used to grow. No taste / zip. Linda in Kansas

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    1. We have a nice farmer's market in town. However, out of town, we have our Albert!

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  17. Oh, the summer tomato! There is nothing like it. Our neighbor blessed us with 6 of hers! We had messy, wonderful BLT's last night, and it is literally like eating summer, as we dive right into colder temps here in central Illinois. The only maters we buy are the Compari brand from Costco, that are still on the vine. Greenhouse grown, but still have flavor.

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    1. I like that description...'eating summer'. Not sure why I love them so much, but really, I could eat a tomato sandwich every day of my life....as long as they were good tomatoes. I spent 50 cents each on the biggest beef steak tomatoes I ever saw. I did that all summer long. Flawless perfect giant tomatoes. I bought some tomatoes at the store for a recipe (trying to save my Albert tomatoes for my sandwiches). $2.69 for 3 romas.

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  18. I went out to the garden last evening and picked three ripe tomatoes, probably the last ones that will be vine ripened here due to the impending frost predictions for tonight and tomorrow. It is indeed a sad day. Those combined with my stockpile, should get me through another week and then no more.

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    1. Wait. You have a stockpile??? Keep those under lock and key. You never can tell when some suspicious Debby-type tomato addicts will come schlepping by.

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    2. By stockpile, I think it is down to about six tomatoes and they are getting past prime. A Debby-type tomato addict could gladly have them if she lived closer, though based upon this post, I might save one for some toast, mayo and pepper. I've never had them that way.

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  19. Presto- no pesto.
    I love that! I mean, I don't love that you have no more basil but I love the sentence. Summer will come again, I can almost guarantee it.

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    1. I am pretty sure it will as well. I actually don't mind winter. You are not pressed to do outside work. I catch up on my reading. Make pots of soup. Putter.

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  20. I still have a large bowl of ripe tomatoes on my counter, waiting to be turned into sauce. Sadly, I am not a fan of fresh tomatoes. I know, it's awful. We still have not had a killing frost yet and my annuals are still blooming on my deck. It's very strange.

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  21. I kind of think this frost came early. I will have to go back through my old posts and see. A whole bowl of tomatoes???? Just sitting there???? So jealous!

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  22. I have three fresh tomatoes left....and two boxes of chopped fresh ones in the freezer and four of cooked ones.
    The two pints worth of green ones went in a curry...with onions, garlic, fresh ginger, kumera and harissa spices..and a squidge of tomato paste to thicken up the sauce....half a dozen curry portions in the freezer.

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    1. Well, you certainly make sure that those tomatoes do not give their lives in vain! Curious though. Kumera is sweet potato? I've found a recipe for Harissa spices and I've got everything I need to whip up a batch of that spice.

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  23. Egad! Snow already! I envy you your fresh tomatoes. We really should buy ours from the farmers' market because I know they'd be better than what we get at the supermarket.

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    1. With all the gardening you do, I really am surprised that you've never grown tomatoes in a pot. They do quite well, actually.

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  24. We must be sisters! I dearly love tomatoes and eat them daily as soon as the garden starts producing. Still have a few small ones in the fridge, but they will soon be gone.
    We will get our first frost this week, I think. Trying to get my husband to clean out the garden but it is like pulling teeth. So much more important, apparently to grade and re-grade the driveway, for hours.

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    1. Of course it is. Because that involves a tractor! Men!

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  25. I wonder why none of my neighbors grow tomatoes here. Hmmm... Maybe I should try and find a space.

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  26. The two best home grown tomatoes? The first and the last. I have one left…

    Jean J

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