Will They Ever Ripen?

Like everything else in my garden, my tomatoes were planted much later in the spring than I would have preferred.  It had been so cool and wet and the kids kept us busy with end of the school year activities. Now I have gorgeous, healthy looking 4 - 6 ft tall plants with loads of blossoms and several green tomatoes. It seems like the tomatoes that are visible have been green forever. This morning when I went out for my daily garden survey, it seemed like a few were beginning to blush, but it's entirely possible that I'm simply willing myself to see color. I'm growing more and more anxious. I feel like I'm not fully enjoying summer cooking and eating yet without fresh tomatoes from the garden. I bought a few from the farmer's market when I was entertaining, but it made me a little grumpy to have to spend money on tomatoes when I have a garden full of large, healthy plants. For now I'm enjoying photographing the blossoms and baby tomatoes. 

Texture, texture, texture. I love it!

I planted at least ten different varieties of tomatoes this year.  From a distance the blossoms all look pretty much the same, but when you get up close you can see the little differences between each plant. They are so subtle. 

I love photographing my sungold tomato plant. I'm not a true lover of the cherry tomato, but my son devours them. I plant a bush in the corner of the garden each year and he snacks on them while he is playing. It is beyond satisfying to see him pluck them off the plant and pop them into his mouth. No concerns with food safety here! 

Watching the sungold cherry tomato plant bloom and grow is fun. It's like nature's little assembly line. The blossoms develop in succession down to the tip of the stem and before the last blossom opens tomatoes are already growing fat at the opposite end. Watching them ripen is even more beautiful as you see them progressively change from green to deep orange on one stem. It's harder to photograph that action though, since my son usually gets to the ripe ones before I can get there with my camera.

My sungold tomato plant. It is always fun to step back and take a look at the whole plant before or after looking at the macro shots. It looks like an overwhelming mass of leaves, but there is so much beauty upon closer examination. 

My Cucumbers

I planted my cucumbers pretty late this year. Our spring in eastern Iowa was cool and wet. Every time I had the chance to plant, the soil was too wet to work with. . . and inevitably when the soil conditions were just right for a 24 hour period, I was too busy. I did manage to get them in, but now I'm anxiously awaiting the first blossoms and fruiting. I'm trying a different variety this year. On a whim I bought a packet of Holland White Cucumbers from Seed Savers Exchange (SSE). According to the seed packet it was first offered by Glenn Drowns in the 1995 SSE Yearbook. It promises that the cucumber has sweet, crunchy flesh and that it scored near the top for flavor in an evaluation of 200 cucumber varieties conducted in 2009. That all sounded good to me.

When I stop to look at my cucumbers I note how they are growing, how healthy they look, and if there are any pests that I need to worry about but the patch itself always looks like a jumbled mess of leaves and vines. So I love to dive in a little deeper and look at the nooks and crannies.  I'm always pleasantly surprised with the abundance of beautiful shapes and forms within the plant, even before the beautiful yellow blossoms begin to appear.

There always seems to be an explosion of activity at the end of every vine.

I think the texture of the plant is amazing.

The shoots that the vines send out to grasp anything within reach to assist in the climbing of the plant form such beautiful curls and twists.

When you focus your attention you get to witness the birth of the first flower. The plant's promise that something even more exciting is happening. 

The leaves of course, are also incredible.