Off-topic nonsense from Slog nutters (me too, apparently) in 3... 2... 1...

Why don't you guys just shut Slog down on the weekends? Seems like the merciful thing to do.

/sourpuss

Sautéed my last remaining tomatoes with some onion and garlic, then put together a big pot of chili - perfect for fall. Goes well with cider....

I think my basil has one or two more batches of pesto left... it's getting droopy and yellowing.

@1

Seems like an ok idea. Wonder if the Slogs-in-charge will politely answer your question, or follow your suggestion.

I vote for an All-Kale Day on Slog, great stuff. props to Goldie.

If you're in Portland this weekend or next, the annual apple tasting festival is happening at the Portland Nursery on SE Stark. You can get yummy apple varieties that aren't sold in stores. (And pears, and cider)

I live in an apartment, and I travel 6-8 months of the year, so no garden, the closest I ever came to having a garden was when I lived on Guam and had a venus flytrap, I gave it away when I moved to Ketchikan.

Perhaps after you've won a Pulitzer, your daughter has gotten her PhD from MIT, and you've retired from the city council, you could host a gardening show.

@7

Boy, you reach for the stars. I think Goldie could probably host a gardening show now. For fun though, instead of a Pulitzer, let's just say he gets some warm sincere pats on the back from friends and family on an article well-done. City Council? Retiring from a fine tenure at The Stranger should be good enough. And his daughter doesn't have to Miss Uberstudent. Let's say she graduates cum laude from Texas A&M with a Bachelors of Science in Agriculture.

I had to take mine down but I gave away bags and bags and still have a few for me. A good year. I wish they had ripened sooner but we didn't get very hot this year. My plants did get gigantic.

My supply of good tasting tomatoes from Carpinito Brothers ran out, and I know that most supermarket tomatoes are terrible, so I tried one of the ugly looking Heirloom tomatoes at QFC.

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!...It's quite tasty.
Esp. on a Boar's Head roast beef sandwich!

Here in KY we've had cold nights and warm afternoons for the last week. The last of the tomatoes ripen better in the kitchen now. The basil crop that had died away in the heat of July has made a huge comeback though, and I'm unsure what to do with it since we've already frozen a year's worth of pesto.

Still have a bunch of green ones on the vines -- I should bring them inside to see if they'll ripen?

This year I had a bunch of green cherry tomatoes and wanted to shut down my garden, so I tried pickling them for use in martinis. I used left over garlic-jalapeno green olive juice in the fridge for a couple weeks.

Yum!

No tomatoes, no kale, no garden for me. Should have had something this year.

No room for a proper vegetable garden at the new place. Me and the Mrs. did have a small veggie garden when we were living in sin in the outskirts of Snohomish, and the best part was all the peas... peas, peas, peas everywhere, every day!

I did plant a couple dozen sunflowers this year, just 'cause they're awesome... When full grown they remind me of Triffids, and I imagine them pulling up and walking around during the night when nobody's looking.

I didn't plant them until late- maybe late July, so I watched them struggle upwards knowing the clock was against them. But the warm, long summer was kind to them and nearly every one of them is a glorious six feet tall or more, with a full, sunny flower on top. Go, triffid army! Go!

@15:

Strange resonance with I-522.

For your consideration.

@11: Make more jars of pesto for gifts during the upcoming holidays.

@16, except that the GMO stuff reappeared after nearly two decades of it not being grown. It's similar to that Oregon wheat field that randomly showed roundup-ready wheat. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if it's anti-GMO activists.

http://www.rense.com/general11/gm.htm
The seed was never grown commercially, but roughly 40 farmers from across the Prairies were multiplying the 200,000 bushels of seed for future marketing and use.

They had to clean out their flax bins and ship the seed to Canamera Foods in Manitoba for crushing.

Once the food inspection agency had written assurances all of Canada's Triffid seed had been eliminated, the variety was deregistered this spring.

"There was nothing wrong with the variety. It met all the requirements, (but) they all agreed the variety should be deregistered. This is unique," said Grant Watson, head of the agency's registration program.

Tomatoes and berries did well this year. I tried beets for the first time and planted a good number of Bull's Blood and golden in mid August, hoping for a Fall harvest. They were going great until about two weeks ago, when some bacterial wilt struck and almost all the leaves yellowed. Anyone had better beet luck? I always seem to strike out on the root crops. Maybe it's the climate - too warm in the Summer and too damp in the Fall?

Awww, I moved 12 years ago from a wonderful house in Madrona with a raised tomato bed to a condo in Belltown, and I still miss it this time of year. (The tomato part, not the homeowner part.)

@21 - I tried hanging one of these stupid things on a whim, and the damned thing worked.
tomato hanger

Rob!-
First link is frightening (who would intentionally name a GMO after man-eating plants?!?)
Second link is great! Go, Triffid Ranch!

Besides tomatoes, we're still getting raspberries, and oddly enough, a few strawberries. The strawberries barely produced and initially gave out in July. We are rather mystified.

In Louisiana, and my hubby just planted a fall garden of cool weather cprops like broccoli and kale. The summer stuff died in the heat in July.

Tomatoes are long gone, I usually only do determinate since they're in containers. Just finished up shallots harvested in July, and planted some more last week (get your garlic in too!). Summer lettuce is gone (Merlot did pretty well in semi-shade in the heat), but have some buttercrunch coming along in tiny little heads - so good with just some toasted hazelnuts and vinaigrette. Also planted some Redbor kale starts, which also make a great ornamental this time of year and through the winter.

Much like yours Goldy, but with peas, favs beans, leeks, and garlic

Does anybody have a recipe for pickled green tomatoes? The garliccy version preferably, yum. My dear beloved great aunt took her delicious recipe to her grave. I can do either high-temp or low-temp canning.

Here in Northern Virginia we've had a full week of gloominess/rain, and the pepper and lettuce plants are not happy. The kale and Swiss chard seem unperturbed; but they are always the easiest under most conditions. My tomatoes will be ok for a little while longer. We don't get that cold here until November, and then it goes right to "winter" like turning on a switch.

Nice to hear from Mrs. Fnarf up there.

that would be, "garlicky."