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!

The weather is uncharacteristically mild for mid-August which I can immediately see when I step outside. Hummingbirds are playful, bees are very busy and many of the vegetables which appeared tired just a few days ago are setting new flowers. This morning everything was quite perky. The garden looked more like mid spring than mid summer. That's a good thing...mid spring is a time of excitement and anticipation to a tomato gardener. Could this be the sign of an extended growing season? I can only hope, although here in Woodland Hills our growing season is rather long anyway. Just ask my sister in Ellensburg, Washington. I think she got her first ripe cherry tomato last week and in a week or two they'll be preparing for snow!

Today my early morning snack included a variety of cherry tomatoes - Sungolds, of course, Chiquita, Jenny, Green Grape and my possible new favorite, BiColor cherry.

This afternoon I decided to sample four varieties...Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black Krim, Persimmon and Momotaro. Aunt Ruby's is a small-ish tomato and is green when ripe. I always like to have green tomatoes because they look incredible on a platter of thick slices. This tomato has a "green" taste to it - which I love. It tastes a little "grassy" - which is sometimes how I describe a great Italian olive oil. It's fresh and alive but not sour or acidic. You just know it came from the earth. Black Krim reminds me of Halloween. It's not a pretty tomato, which is part of it's charm. It's small and has lots of ribs and is one of the so called "black" tomatoes. These make great salsa. The flavor is mild and doesn't offer enough for it to stand on it's own. Again, it would be great in a salsa to serve as a vehicle for a collection of other flavors. Persimmon is a big, beautiful orange tomato that grows on a large and prolific plant. It never fails to deliver a great taste. It's not overly sweet but reminds me of taking a bite of a wonderfully juicy peach. Momotaro is known as the only tomato that will not grow in a container. This year, I finally listened and planted it in the ground. Guess what?? It gave me tomatoes! And they're really good! A good, solid, medium sized red tomato - firm enough that you could hollow it out and stuff it with a yummy filling.

So, my favorite for today?? That's a tough one...but I'm going with (drumroll please) Momotaro!

Anyone who walks into my kitchen these days has to chuckle at the sight of the counter tops - or lack of them! The counters are completely covered in tomatoes. Red, orange and yellow, large, small and mini, bi color and striped, splotchy, ugly and amazingly beautiful tomatoes!

There is one tomato that everyone who walks in feels compelled to pick up, take in it's subtle aroma and rave about it's glorious colors. They are in awe of it's incredible beauty. My son, my photographer, my friends from the needlepoint shop, even the UPS guy cannot say enough about this tomato. As if looks aren't enough, it's a medium size fruit with a huge amount of flavor and character.

Without a doubt, today's favorite for flavor, texture and it's incredible beauty is Chocolate Stripes!