Never say never...

Early this morning I went to the nursery to pick up a few things...a new sprayer for the hose, a couple of bags of potting soil, and a couple of seedlings. I managed to kill an Armenian cucumber seedling. Actually, it's more like I forgot about it. It got watered at the same time the tomatoes did...which, at this stage in the growing season and 100 degree weather, was about twice a week. Not enough for a little baby cucumber!! So, rather than beat myself up about it I decided to go buy another and start again.

There were no cucumber plants to buy. Ok, I'll live...it's not like I killed a tomato plant or something. So, I decided maybe I'll put in a couple more Royal Burgundy beans. They are so incredible - dark purple on the outside and bright, spring green on the inside. There were no beans to buy. In fact, in the veggie department I had a choice only as long as I wanted to choose from the various pepper plants they had to sell. I'm not a pepper girl so I turned to leave in disgust.

But there, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of three lonely tomato plants, relegated to a corner of the garden, just begging me to take them home! How could I resist?! I decided to choose only one - one was missing it's name tag, the next was Jetsetter, one of my favorites but I have two already and they are loaded with fruit. The remaining plant was Siberia. I have always said that there is no point in planting "cold weather" tomatoes in Woodland Hills. Nothing with a name that sounds like it came from somewhere in Eastern Europe. It just won't work. No - never! In our canyon temperatures soar higher than anywhere else in the Valley. But there it was, begging for a home like a sad puppy dog. (I know that sad eyed look well - I have a Basset Hound) and I just couldn't leave it behind. Besides, I really needed to buy something.

Needless to say, I'm now the proud owner of a cold season tomato. I'll plant it tomorrow and the grand experiment will begin...we'll see.

Oh yeah - today's favorite??

I was outside, watering, staking, harvesting - all the fun stuff I left for the weekend. I knew I needed to do some tasting so I could name my favorite tomato of the day. i decided to be rather bohemian about the whole thing, grabbed tomatoes off a couple of plants and did my taste test right there in the backyard. No fork and knife. Didn't even rinse the skins.I just bit in!

My favorite tomato today was one with a delightful name, a perfect oval shape and beautiful red skin. It's flavor was lively and fun without being tangy. Today's favorite - Enchantment!