The Fast and the Furious

I know there are a lot of serious issues out there but right now we are overwhelmed by tomatoes. The main crops and now paste tomatoes, a month earlier than last year, are coming fast and furious. They are in good shape for the most part and practically ripening as we look them. The dining room collection of tomatoes crowds us, hardly leaving room to eat [our kitchen is small we eat every meal in the adjacent dining room]. We have canned 17 ½ pints so far.  Probably Sunday we’ll can tomatoes, rather than sauce. We use more sauce, but we use plenty of jars of tomatoes.

Today, I hope to freeze beans – they are coming in faster than we can possibly eat them. I shouldn’t say, ’coming in.’  Woody has to go down to the lower garden  by the road to pick them in this near-toxic air.  It’s very hot and humid.

We are also getting many zucchini, patty pans and frying peppers. I made a nice dish last night of peppers and zukes and before that, I took one of them that got away from us and was huge, and made Greek stuffed zucchini. That was delicious. We eat tomatoes in some form often twice a day.  Woody says he’s starting to get heartburn. But they only come for such a short period once a year1 How can we resist? Reds, pinks, yellows and what they call black. Black Krims are my favorite lunch tomato.

Nina and I made a preliminary go-through of the better poems since ON THE WAYOUT, TURN OFF THE LIGHT – a good collection that unfortunately came out the third month of Covid when nobody was in the Knopf office. No reviews, none sent to people on my list.  And the marketing department blames me for low sales. We will continue with the book after I take a week off to have fresh eyes on my choices.

I had fun Thursday night watching the Cardinals and the Panthers.  I expected it to be dull and one-sided. But it was an exciting game up the very end. When with one second to go, the Panthers beat the Cardinals by a touchdown that the quarterback made possible and then carried the ball in to the end zone. It was back and forth all evening, with both team’s young players putting on an   exciting show.

I give Nina as many vegetables as she wants-- a few on Monday and more on Tuesday. She has four children and her father staying with her for the summer so she is cooking for six. She likes to cook and knows how to cook vegetables, which is not true for everyone.  Even some really good cooks overcook vegetables.

Canning tomatoes is hard work. Freezing beans much less so. We are not being social this weekend as it takes a lot out of us and we have so much to do in the house and garden.  Tonight, Woody will broil a steak and this early afternoon, I will make potato salad – not he American mayonnaise-y type but Juila Childs’, with vinaigrette and a bit of dry Vermouth added when potatoes are cut up but still hot. Woody is lobbying for a traditional salad nicoise. Soon, very soon.