In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

I sheepishly share a photo of my Rosella Purple tomatoes with Instagram-worthy tomato photos everywhere. But I live in the fog belt and it’s been a cool summer. We haven’t even pulled out the fan to use at night. I’m getting one tomato a day with many more on the way from the five plants. Rat score this week is 0.

Finally, we had two days of mostly sunshine and the zucchini grew to harvestable size. They languished in the cool for almost a week.

We get this many or more Emerite green beans every day. Lots to share but time to begin freezing them.

I made a Green Bean Pesto Pasta last week, subbing Trader Joe’s Lemon Pesto for the basil variety. The green beans were cut in 1/4 inch segments and tossed into the pasta water near the end. Perfect on red butter lettuce with crusty bread.

Many days I have my quick version of a caprese salad, here with mozzarella cheese and a balsamic glaze from Trader Joe’s.

My attempt at a hand-held caprese sandwich did not match the image but it was remarkable and pure summer.

Sourdough bread, white corn, eggs, cheese, olives and herbs—what’s not to love? Should have diced some zucchini to toss in. I roasted tomatoes alongside the casserole then topped each serving with them.

And what could say summer more than bright orange zinnias?

My seeds arrived from Territorial Seed Company and I’m planning my cool season garden. With summer crops lingering, I’ll do starts of brassicas and lettuce at the end of August and transplant about a month later. My fave is the winter garden so there’s anticipation of lettuces and other goodness.

If you have a few minutes check my Resources page for some of my favorite and most useful garden resources. Then head to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.