Les écureuils sont Bâtards

Squirrels are bastards… but it sounds so much nicer in French. 

In case you missed what the fluffy-tailed suburban rats did to my strawberries last spring, you can see it here. This time they left the strawberries alone and went after the tomatoes. All of the tomatoes. Even the green ones. 

I came home from work one day a couple weeks ago (just a few days after my last post) to find all of the ripe and almost-ripe tomatoes gone, and all of the green tomatoes scattered on the ground around the plants. I didn’t take pictures of the destruction so you’ll just have to imagine it. I’m not growing tomatoes next year.

In happier news, I made a whole bunch of Italian cocktail meatballs last weekend, using garlic and herbs from the garden. I found a recipe several years ago (I’ve tweaked it a bit) that I make every year when it’s time to harvest the herbs. And it was time to harvest the basil several days ago before the overnight temperatures dropped into the 50s. So, it was time to make meatballs!

Of course, meatballs have to simmer in something… so I made marinara sauce too. Not with my own garden-fresh san Marzano tomatoes (les Bâtards!), but with my own garden-fresh thyme, parsley, basil, and garlic.

I know it’s been awhile since my last post. It will probably be awhile before my next post. I’m taking a class this semester at a local community college and that’s going to take up a lot of my time. But there’s still garden work to do this year and I imagine there will be a few more posts before the season is over.

Maybe when it’s time to plant garlic???