Tomatillos Gone Crazy

It feels like I look at what's growing with harvesting, ripping out and replanting in mind. Sure it's important to have a sense of the cycles. I do. But right now I'm enjoying the lushness of the garden. With all this rain, plants like tomatillos are wild and sprawling. Growing over the beans and strawberries out of the back of the Elliot plot. They're sprouting up through the burlap bags trying to make plots where paths are meant to be. Crazy plants.

I have pinto beans soaking for quesadillas with tomatillo sauce and epazote and cheese filling. I have packs of whole wheat tortillas in the freezer. Easy dinner. I'll also toss some rice with coriander(cilantro) and lemon juice, lime would be a better choice but lemon will do. Brandywine is my favorite tomato. I've had a few huge vine ripened ones so far. The last was still warm, almost hot, from the vine when I cut it for salad. They have just the right acidic intense tomatoey taste. Unfortuantely, someone nicked one of the plants in the chris plot uprooting it. It's pretty wilted. I reacted quickly replanting it and mounding soil over the stem some to encourage new roots. Time will tell if it survives.

The fish peppers are actually growing larger in the garden in the big blue pot than in my back yard. This is a first. Maybe its the blueness. The pot is bigger, maybe they grow to the size of the container like the colocassia plants. The peppers in the yard are growing fine. I'm letting some of the the riot variety turn red.

the noodle bean plants are growing lush and climbing the bamboo in the back plot. No beans so far, and no Mexican bean beetles on that plot. I check every day. Yesterday I got 11 beetles several nymphs and one leaf with eggs in the Elliot plot. The leaves are suffering some but the plants are still growing and flowering. Tonight I'll pick the first bush beans from the first sowing of Provider variety. I love string beans. In the summer, just roasted until the color turns bright they make a great addition to a summer salad. A bit of radicchio, arugula, sorrel some herbs and beans and of coarse chunks of jucey ripe tomato all in a lemony mustard vinegrette.

Lushness rain and heat are also great for the weeds and they are really enjoying this weather. I try to yank some each day when I visit to pick for dinner but the plots could use a good concenated weeding.

I had pesto again last night. I like it with pasta that has crevasses to catch the sauce. I used whole wheat shells this time. Leftovers for lunch today. The mint surrounding the basil is flowering and needs to be clipped. Something for the upcoming work day.