I now have first plum tomato harvest. Not much, yet, but there’s still a lot more that are still green.

The rain has been really good to everyone’s backyard gardens this season. That and decent growing soil made my little tomato plants grow into a rampant monster. Bad weather and burgeoning fruit knocked down the plant and the stakes over the weekend, so I ended up re-staking them. They really do need to be pruned, but I’m just too damn lazy for any of that.  I’m so pleased, from the looks of things I’ll have more than enough tomatoes to treat myself to, and maybe some  i’ll be able to preserve.  Yay!

I’ve been snacking on these Cherry Tomatoes as they ripen. They’re delicious!

(more tomato plant pictures after the jump)

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I thought my gooseberry harvest was scant a couple of weeks ago. For some reason, yesterday I went out to check on the shrub and found a bounty. I picked up maybe 2 or 3 quarts of gooseberries, and there is still more ripening. Gooseberries have a firm texture, a thicker skin and I guess the only way I could describe it is an “apple” sort of taste. And they look so pretty green, and ripe red too. This batch of berries went into three and half half pint jars of jam. I’m so glad I decided to harvest my gooseberries this year.

More gooseberry pictures on Flickr!

This is a picture of brownies I made sometime last year, using this delicious recipe from Vegweb.  I revisited this recipe again a little while ago and was going through the comments. I particularly love the comment “They’re just like the real thing…” Hmm, pet peeve of mine, particularly when I once in a while indulge in baking: that vegan products are somehow the “fake” version of the other products that contain dairy/egg.

This is sort of why I think naming anything “vegan” does more harm than it does good. It instantly puts weird associations and prejudices in different people’s heads.  And when you do mention that something you made is “vegan”, instantly people are looking for the differences between that and the other recipes they’re used to… hence comparisons like “it tastes just like the real thing!”.  I’m not a big baker person, but when I do bake, I usually try to make it as vegan as possible… that is no dairy, no eggs, no other animal products. It’s simple, and if you follow a good recipe you come out with a product that is tasty and delicious. If it’s not delicious, scrap the recipe, make something else. So let’s see… what makes a brownie? Chocolate - check. Square or rectangular shape - check.  Cake-like texture - check. More chocolate - check. Deliciousness - check. That seems to be a brownie in my definition. It’s not a fake brownie just because it’s vegan.  It doesn’t “taste just like the real thing”. It is the real thing.  It has nutritional value. It’s fattening. It’s yummy. Put it in your mouth, eat it, it’s fun!

Anyway, I’m off to have my fake dinner.  Rant done!

Blueberry jam by me!

A while ago, I bought a canning pot and a bunch of supplies. The idea was, if I had enough gooseberries, I’d make some jam. Unfortunately, my gooseberry harvest last week was literally a handful, and I don’t think I’d be able to harvest the whole bush in a single batch.  So I went to the market today and bought way too many blueberries (harvested in Pelham, ’cause i’m into the local food thing).

While it stormed outside today, I made my first batch of blueberry jam.

I ate it. It was delicious!