Not Quite Lemons and Lemonade

It’s fall. I love fall. Although after the summer we had — or did NOT have, depending on where you live — it’s a bit of a non-event. But still, I am glad to see the change in seasons.

One of the things I love about fall is all the cooking: canning or putting things in the freezer for use over the winter, and making hearty, cool weather dishes again. And usually, I am making all kinds of good things with the harvest from my garden.

But not this year, not really. Two factors have made this a bum year for our kitchen garden. First, my garden was terribly neglected because of the attention required to a certain little someone. My catnapping kid didn’t afford me many opportunities to go out and tend to the garden as I normally would, and her lack of mobility meant we spent our time outdoors in places where she was sheltered from the sun and up out of the grass. So that meant, no time out in the garden, and weeds ran rampant. Next year will be much easier, because she will be able to run and play while I am out there.

The second factor that made for a less-than-bumper crop was the horrible weather. It has to have been the worst summer in a long, long time in terms of weather. It was cold and rainy, so my poor vegetables struggled to grow, and the plants that did manage to grow were either pretty blighted or had a really small yield. My tomato plants, which normally grow like crazy in their dry, sunny spot, grew to about half their normal size, yielded small sad little tomatoes, and then suffered the blight that seems to have affected tomato plants everywhere. The poor dying things tried hard, but it was not a great year for tomatoes. Basil, which also likes the sun and the heat and the dry weather, ended up all leggy and spotty. My green pepper plants barely grew, and then got overwhelmed by weeds. My onions are still out there, as I hope the extra time will help them fatten up. The only thing that did well were my green onions, which have made for a great batch of jerk.

So, I have harvested what I could. I brought in my sad little tomatoes, and left many of them to the local raccoons and skunks, so at least somebody is getting fed, right? The ones I did bring in are tiny little roma tomatoes. There’s not enough for a big batch of tomato sauce — it’s hardly worth the effort peeling, seeding and mashing such small fruit. But you know what the little romas are great for?

Bruschetta. LOTS AND LOTS of bruschetta.

So I have been making bruschetta for us to snack on, or to accompany meals, and it has been lovely. A bit of sad basil, some sweet onion, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, and some of our little tomatoes cut up small. It’s been delicious and really fresh. Because they’re so small, seeding them and chopping them up has been easy peasy. And despite their small stature, they still taste good. And as far as something to snack on goes, it’s pretty healthy. I buy some artisan bread from the day-old rack at the supermarket, which means we get some excellent breads at a fraction of their normal price, and toasting it in the oven means that being day-old really doesn’t matter. So we get something tasty, healthy AND at a bargain.

It’s not quite the same as life giving you lemons and making lemonade, but it’s close.