Bountiful Fall

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The evenings are getting quite cool now, down right nippy some evenings to our summer thin blood.  Robert and I went out the other night and picked a couple of colanders full of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs.  I particularly wanted to get some of the basil inside since it's such a tender plant.

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Look at those fine green tomatoes. We've never really gotten the knack for what to do with them - we tried pickles last year and they were truly awful. This may be the best stock we've had though. They're a purple heirloom type which all seemed to get too ripe before I harvested them during the summer, but now they're super crisp and firm. So we made Fried Green Tomatoes with Basil Mayonnaise and they were delicious. Robert made himself BLT's and I put mine on salad greens. We used this recipe from Epicurious.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fried-Green-Tomatoes-with-Basil-Mayonnaise-355938
Give it a try!

I was also surprised by the lavender - in past years it's pretty well done earlier in the summer, but look at these beauties and imagine the old-fashioned, blissful aroma.  When it's dry, I'll make sachets.  In addition to smelling so good, they actually keep away the bad bugs.  What more could you ask for?

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