Last week I posted that I was hoping to get a tomato sandwich. I am happy to report that I have had a tomato sandwich for lunch EVERY DAY since then. This year I only have two kinds of slicing tomatoes in my garden, the usual Black Krim heirloom (my favorite) and a new one, the Big Rainbow.
Big Rainbow tomato
I couldn't wait to see how the Big Rainbow tomato tasted, so that was the one I used for my first tomato sandwich. Just looking at this picture below makes me want to go fix a tomato sandwich right now!
Authentic Southern Tomato Sandwich
Everyone knows there are only 5 ingredients in a true tomato sandwich: 1) tomato, 2) fresh white bread (no substitutions!), 3) mayonnaise (whatever brand is your favorite), 4) salt, and 5) pepper. That is it, my friends. No lettuce, no bacon, nothing else to adorn this wonderful, pure culinary pleasure!
BIRDS (yes, again)
Before we went on our trip over to Seattle and Tacoma, we had some pretty hot days with temperatures over 100 degrees several days in a row. The birds outside were all panting, it was so hot for them. We made sure to have ample water in our bird baths during that time, and the birds were regular visitors to them. Most of our customers were sparrows, but we have definitely grown to love these little guys over the years. They may not be as pretty as all the songbirds we had in North Carolina, but they sure are fun to watch.
It looked like most of the birds at the bird bath above were youngsters. Some of them didn't really know what to do, but after they would look around at their buddies they would figure it out.
House Sparrow couple
GARDEN FLOWERS
This past week has been really smoky in Yakima due to the fires in Washington state and also from numerous fires in British Columbia, Canada. The prevailing winds are blowing down from the North and bringing us smoke from the Canadian fires. All of this has worked to keep Linda and myself inside the house for the most part. But one morning the smoke wasn't too bad so I decided to get some pictures of flowers in the garden. Not the flower garden, mind you, but the vegetable garden. So, I just walked around the garden and took pictures of all the flowers out there. It was kind of early in the morning and not too many bees were out yet.
Zucchini flower
The zucchini flowers usually have a bee or two on them. The bees head for that structure in the middle of the flower where the pollen is made by the male flowers, called the stamen. The pollen sticks to the bees and then they fly over to a female flower and deposit the pollen on the female flower's corresponding part called a stigma. The zucchini will develop behind the pollinated flower. So you can see why bees are so important to growing food.
Lemon Cucumber flowers
Most of the plants in my garden belong to the same family, called the Nightshades. This family includes tomatoes, tomatillos, potatoes, and peppers. The rest of my plants belong to the Curcurbits family, which includes all squashes, zucchinis, and cucumbers. As you can see from the pictures below, a lot of the flowers are similar.
Tomatillo fruit (top) and flower (bottom)
Yellow Squash flowers
Tomato flower
Jalapeno flower
Armenian Cucumber flower
Potato flower
I also found a couple of flowers on some of the salad garden plants. The basil would have flowers except for the fact that I keep them pinched off so the basil will continue to grow leaves. We have so many chive plants that it would be impossible to keep those flowers pinched off. And the lettuce plants are done for the season so I am letting them flower just in case the bees want to go to them.
Chive flower
Lettuce flower
I would be remiss if I did not show any pictures from the flower garden as well. Right now some of the flowers are just too pretty to be passed over. So here is a sampling of flowers from the front and back flower gardens.
Gallardia flower with trumpet petals
This Gallardia flower above is a little different from most of our other Gallardia flowers. It opened up with small green leaves right behind the flower blossom, and the petals of the flower are trumpet-shaped. Below is a picture of what our other Gallardia flowers look like, which is called the Classic Daisy form of Gallardia.
Gallardia flower with daisy petals
A trumpet-petal Gallardia bouquet
My butterfly bush that I bought last year at the Master Gardeners sale has really grown this year and has had some absolutely gorgeous flowers. The butterflies and hummingbirds have really enjoyed going to it. I love how the flower head is made up of all these little tiny flowers, and it's fun to watch the butterflies and hummers go to each one of these tiny flowers getting nectar.
Butterfly bush flower
Is this Sunflower sticking its tongue out at me?
I found this Sunflower above in the front yard. It had one yellow petal coming out of the middle of the seed head. I have never noticed that before on a Sunflower, but I saw another one in the front yard just like it so I'm guessing it happens every now and then. Pretty funny, though!
Rudbekia, or Black-Eyed Susan
The Rudbekia flowers have really been lovely this year. Linda painstakingly transplanted some babies around in different parts of the front yard, and then babied them this Spring. They have rewarded her hard work by producing some of the most beautiful flowers, and the bees just love them!
Snapdragons
We don't have to work at all to get these flowers above in our yard. These Snapdragons just pop up voluntarily every year in a wide array of colors. We don't have very many completely red flowers in our garden, the only other ones that come to mind are the roses. But we did have a few red Snapdragon volunteers this year. Hopefully we will have even more next year because they were so pretty!
PARTING SHOT
Summer Girl came inside a little bit this past week, probably to escape the smoky air outside. We always enjoy it when she deigns to visit us inside during the summer, if only for a few minutes.
That's all for this week, my friends. Please join us again next week, and keep your fingers crossed that the smoky air clears up by then!
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