Deep Summer

Deep summer has arrived. Crickets call this to our attention. Even though the temperature has been in the 90s for many more days than usual, and rivers, lakes, and ponds are quite comfortable for swimming, now is the mid-summer of deep tans and ripe tomatoes.

The great tomato race begins. They spill off the window sill in the kitchen onto the counter. Red cherry tomatoes in a green bowl; sungolds in a blue bowl. Eat tomatoes for all 3 meals and snack on them too. Salsa, BLTs, bruschetta, tomato and cucumber salad. The cucumbers are multiplying when our backs are turned. Now the full adulthood of the garden produces.

We en-joy this stage of garden life when vegetables are fresh and bountiful. Spread the joy: give the extras to friends or to the food shelf. Now is the time to feel deep gratitude for the abundance of our garden.