Monday, August 24, 2009

Weekend Harvest

The tomato vines are producing at hyper-speed!
What to do with all these tomatoes (this is just one small basket)
1) Salads (of course)
2) Put them into the food dehydrator (for later use in soups, stews and sauces)
3) Give away to friends and family
4) Give to the homeless shelter



There's one problematic issue in my Bit o'earth...

We have this HUGE avocado tree


It produces the lovelies (below) ...
the problem is that when they do reach us...
they have little tiny bite marks!

This comes from the fact that the tree is over 50ft tall
and there's no way for us to reach the avocados.

The only ones who can reach them is our squirrel team.
They take a few little bits, and then pass them down to us...

Wonderful! Thanks kids!

Did you know that avocados are a climacteric fruit (the Banana is another),
which means that it matures on the tree but ripens off the tree...
which in turn, might explain why the squirrels take a bit or two and toss it!

Its native to the Caribbean, but is farmed in South America and Southern areas of USA.

It belongs to the family of trees that are labeled Lauraceae ...
along with Cinnamon, Camphor and Bay Laurel.

If I'm buying from the grocery or farm stand, Hass is my favorite variety,
but I have no idea what variety mine is.

For supper, we will have tomato and avocado salad...
(even though they have tiny bite marks on them! LOL)

5 comments:

  1. Hi Vicki...wow those tomatoes!!! Back at the Post Office we grew fabulous tomatoes one year...I froze them for Winter and made some spaghetti boognaise...and the sauce was rich and tomatoey...just beautiful!!! Over here the majority of our bananas and avocadoes are grown in Queensland...nice and warm there...That tomato and avocado salad sounds delicious...it has my mouth watering!!! Great pics and what a huge tree that avocado one is...Much Love Dzintra♥x

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  2. mmm, avocado...

    we had a cherry tree a few years ago at our old house. the birds always got them first.

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  3. You are so lucky Vicki!! I miss having avocado trees :(

    Those tomatoes look fantastic :)

    xo,
    rue

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  4. Just be thankful they're not zucchini because then everyone is your friend, sugar! I hate zucchini...
    xoxo,
    Connie

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  5. I have certainly learned about the avocado by visiting here today.And I'm with D, I think the salad sounds yummy.
    It is funny sometimes what critters like squirrels do with the foods they find.A girlfriend of mine had to replace the loft in her barn because a squirrel hid so many walnuts in the rafters one year the floor of the loft caved in.Now that's what I call putting up for the winter.
    That babydoll of yours is just the cutest darling...
    Susan

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