Seeing Red

This morning I was seeing red - in the garden that is. My Aussie tomato is finally turning. You can just see it peaking out from underneath all the foliage. This is the first one that I might get. The other three were eaten by chipmunks. Sadly it has a small hole in one side. Maybe tomato fruitworm. I'll know when it is picked. This tomato may also be inedible, but maybe not. I might get part of it. I really want to taste it. It is a huge tomato. I'm crossing my fingers.

I was chuckling with glee this morning when I saw the other red in the garden. My raspberries are turning. The raspberries are overloaded with fruit this year, bowing way down under the weight. I don't usually tie them up, but I'm thinking it might be prudent. The bumblebees have been working the raspberries religiously everyday. They are such hard workers they don't even go home at night. The bumblebee in the left side of the photo is asleep. I saw several others in the patch still sleeping their raspberry intoxication off too.

I will be watching those closely in the next couple of days to see when I can start picking. Today I finally picked my basil. It was getting huge. I cut the plants back halfway to the ground and brought in my bounty. It was so beautiful sitting on my counter in the morning light. I contemplated what to do with it all. In the end I mixed it with olive oil, pureed and froze it. Previously I froze the leaves whole. I know they will turn black when they unfreeze, but I'm hoping their flavor holds. I'll compare the two flavors later in the winter.

I saved a few sprigs and put them in a glass on my counter. They will keep fresh for a couple of days there. Though if my Aussie tomato gets ripe I'll pick more basil. I left one Italian basil plant untouched. I still have my Thai and lemon basils in the garden too. I'll get around to saving those later.

I also have more pickles to make. So picked some dill and some hot peppers. I don't have much good looking dill weed at present, but I have plenty of dill heads, so used mostly those for my pickle juice. I keep thinking my cucumbers are fading then they put on a bout of production. They are slowly losing their leaves to mildew, but obviously still have enough to make cucumbers.

I also picked a lot more ripe dill seeds to dry in the pantry. More? I think I could just let it fall to the ground. A lot has already. But no I'll save it. The seed that has fallen has already started to germinate. Much of it won't until next year, but the earliest seeds have decided to go for it. Little seedlings are carpeting the area around my leeks and basil. I doubt they have time to grow, but until my cucumbers give up the ghost, I'll let them try.